FAYETTEVILLE -- A mix of residential and paid parking should accompany other measures, such as students riding buses or bicycles or walking, to solve a neighborhood parking crunch south of Wilson Park, city officials heard Tuesday.
Neighborhood, sorority and university representatives took part in a public meeting to talk about parking in an eight-block residential area south of the park. The area includes Louise Street to the north, Park Avenue to the east, Maple Street to the south and Wilson Avenue to the west.
Discussion centered around the Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Delta houses on Maple Street. Both houses are privately owned on private land.
The city requires one parking space per bedroom, and both houses meet or exceed the requirement, said Andrew Garner, city planning director. However, each room in a sorority house has multiple beds.
The Pi Beta Phi house got a permit in 2015 to add more spaces than allowed, bringing the total to 63 for 37 rooms. The Kappa Delta house has the required car parking for its 36 rooms, plus parking for scooters and bicycles.
Representatives of the sororities at Tuesday's meeting said they've bought more spaces from nearby churches and off-campus student housing complexes.
Even with spaces to cover the students who live at the houses, many more visit for gatherings. Monday night meals, rush week and family days bring nearly all 400 or so members to each location. The roughly 160 on-street spaces in the neighborhood can't accommodate the visitors and the neighbors, city officials heard. A number of houses don't have garages and or adequate driveway space.
Representatives with the sororities said the houses aren't new and membership has stayed steady for years. Jenessa Bailey with Pi Beta Phi said development downtown is taking up space that could otherwise be used for parking.
"We can't continue to take away parking spots and put up buildings for hundreds or thousands of students with nowhere to park their car," she said.
Participants reached consensus on a shared system with residential spots for neighbors, some residential spots for the sorority houses and paid parking for other users. People could pay to park using an app on their phones.
The sorority houses should get fewer residential spaces by proportion because they function differently from a single-family home, said Trey Bartosh, a neighbor.
"Therefore their parking needs are not the same as residential," he said.
Rolf Wilkin, another neighbor, suggested the sorority houses get a few spots per block.
The university can work with the sorority organizations, neighbors and the city and encourage students to carpool or use buses or other transportation means, said Mark Rushing, university spokesman, before the meeting.
"There are existing transit routes that include stops at parking lots and parking garages and stop right next to those sororities as well, so simply creating awareness of those options could really help," he said. "Maybe we should consider calling them sorority shuttles on Monday nights, traditionally chapter nights, to help get the word out."
A possible new sorority house at Maple and Wilson is several years away, with no plans or agreements made, Rushing said.
"The university will make sure that adequate parking is a key consideration as a part of that future planning process for the university-owned property," he said.
City staff will work on the details of a neighborhood-specific parking district, Parking Manager Justin Clay said. It will go before the City Council's Ordinance Review Committee before returning to the council. A date hasn't been set for the meeting, he said.
"We can hash it out and see what's what," Clay said.
NW News on 10/23/2019