Consultant: Parking deck feasible for Dickson Street area
By Marsha L. Melnichak
Northwest Arkansas Times – April 27, 2005
A parking deck in the Dickson Street area will be needed and is feasible, transportation consultant George Alexiou told the Fayetteville City Council at its agenda-planning meeting Tuesday.
He had earlier identified three possible locations.
- The Walton Arts Center parking lot.
- Along West Avenue and Watson Street, next to the UA’s West Annex.
- In the parking lot behind Roger’s Recreation, where the Schuler Town building is located.
The third location is also the site of the Barber Group’s proposed six-story mixed used project, which is being called the Legacy Building.
According to Alexiou, the solution to Fayetteville’s traffic problems is not building more roads.
“You’re a growing region. You’re going to start facing traffic problems like a lot of other regions. Your own transportation planner said traffic congestion is the number one problem,” said Alexiou, with Martin, Alexiou and Bryson, a consulting firm hired by the University of Arkansas.
“But the solution should not be building more and more roads. It’s improving the alternatives.”
Among the alternatives he identified were: improving alternate transportation, bus routes, shuttles, encouraging walking, ride share and biking.
“It takes time. You don’t have the crunch now. But it takes time. Cultural change. Start working on that now. Hopefully, the investment and the hard work will pay off in the long return.”
The draft looked at parking demand, estimated impact, revenue and possible future occupancy.
It estimates cost at $12,000 per space for design, site development and construction. That price does not include property acquisition.
At the agenda planning session, Alexiou estimated a private developer might want to bring in at least $16,000 per space to be attracted to the project.
Asked about the potential for private investment in the parking deck, Alexiou answered, “That’s the parking fees.”
The study did not include a look at the possibility of private investment in liner buildings to hide the decks.
NorthWest Arkansas Times Articles – April 27, 2005 (Adobe Acrobat PDF)
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