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by EDWARD SZTUKOWSKI
News Reporter
The Boone Town Council and Boone Planning Commission met to discuss parking requirements for downtown Thursday, continuing a series of discussions for Boone’s future.
The proposed changes from the planning commission would do away with minimum parking space requirements for downtown Boone, but would keep a cap on the maximum amount of parking spaces in a lot.
This would make it possible for businesses to not provide parking if they did not want to.
“Ideally,
you would like to think you would be attracting people biking, walking
or busing, but they still may have vehicles and the question would end
up being, ‘where would those vehicles end up?’” Mayor Pro-Tem Lynne
Mason said. “It makes a lot of sense to go this direction, but I think
we need to be prudent and have some mechanism to offset what parking is
needed.”
The move
would be a step to make the town more pedestrian friendly, something
the town has been pushing for in its land use plan.
“I think
less parking would actually promote more walking and biking and
actually alleviate a lot of the problems in the downtown district,”
Town Council member Liz Aycock said.
Jesse D.
Pipes, member of the planning commission, echoed Aycock’s sentiments
and felt getting rid of a parking requirement would help revitalize the
downtown area.
“People
want to be in these areas, and it works. I don’t think I need to park
in front of every store,” Pipes said. “I think there is ample parking,
I live downtown and I think its encouraged to drive downtown.”
Overall, Boone is trying to push for more walking and less driving to help combat urban sprawl.
“We
shouldn’t let parking control our system,” Milton “Bunk” Spann,
Planning Commission member said. “People will adapt and find other
parking venues or don’t use automobiles. If our town is going to get
more dense we’re going to have to give up parking.”
A
parking fund was suggested, where developers downtown would pay a fee
towards an alternative parking system, such as out of town lots or a
parking garage.
“The
problem with a parking fund is developers would simply pass the charge
down to their tenants,” Morgan Murray, owner of downtown property said.
“If they choose to not own a car, we’re forcing people to pay for
people who live outside town to have a space.”
It was
agreed in the end, the parking discussion would have to wait on the
table and be discussed more before any decisions could be made.
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