Town Commissioner Barbara Kornegay, left, helps Allison Platt, a landscape architect and urban planner with Regeneration by Design, set up for the Tuesday night, Dec. 5, streetscape design meeting. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Copies of two proposals for Mount Olive’s downtown streetscape design were handed out during a Tuesday night, Dec. 5, meeting. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Allison Platt, a landscape architect and urban planner with Regeneration by Design, talks about initial plans for Mount Olive’s streetscape design. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
A few voices at Tuesday night’s downtown streetscape design meeting remained opposed to any design that would replace head-in or angle parking with parallel parking only — even at the expense of a bike path and other improvements designed to attract people and development to the area.
Supporters of a design that includes wider sidewalks, a railroad track buffer and landscaping, bike paths and all parallel parking countered that it makes no sense to raise and spend money on a plan that basically leaves the downtown area in the same condition that it is in today.
There is concern as well that failure to plan for those improvements could jeopardize the town’s chances of receiving federal and/or state grants.
The Tuesday, Dec. 5, session, which attracted only 17 people, was a follow-up to an Oct. 23 meeting attended by 25 people where a handful first challenged eliminating head-in parking.
They argued doing so would create a hardship on their customers, particularly the elderly, their businesses and would reduce the number of available parking slots.
The latest session lasted about 90 minutes, including about about 30 minutes of back and forth on parking — an issue that some at the meeting said has polarized people.
No decision has been made on what design to pursue.
However, most people attending the two meetings appeared to favor wider sidewalks, railroad track buffer fencing and landscaping, bike paths and all parallel parking.
“We will visit some other organizations to get their ideas and comments,” Mount Olive Town Commissioner Barbara Kornegay said following the meeting.
Earlier this year, Mount Olive received a $175,000 Rural Transformation Grant through the N.C. Dept. of Commerce. The grant was for hiring a company to help develop a master plan of how the downtown area can be improved and for a streetscape design for both sides of Center Street between Pollock and John streets.
Allison Platt, a landscape architect and urban planner with Regeneration by Design of Goldsboro, was hired to design the streetscape portion of the project.
A successful streetscape redesign, if implemented with community resolve, will always pay for itself and more while increasing interest in rehabbing vacant and underutilized buildings, Platt has said.
Platt has previously prepared plans for Goldsboro, New Bern and Washington, N.C.
Kornegay is member of the core group that is spearheading the planning effort. Also serving are Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce President Julie Beck, Mt. Olive Pickle Co. Public Relations Director Lynn Williams, At-large Commissioner Steve Wiggins, Town Manager Jammie Royall, Town Clerk Sherry Davis and Town Attorney Carroll Turner.
Much has been said about the parking, especially in regard to the Ribeyes Steakhouse area, Platt said.
There was only one downtown restaurant in Goldsboro when streetscape planning started there, now there are several even though a number of parking places were eliminated, Platt said.
One thing that people have not considered is Mount Olive’s off-street parking, she said. It is not used very well, but is something that can be arranged to use, she added.
“That is what happened in Goldsboro,” Platt said. “On a busy night, you drive down there, and if you can’t immediately find a parking space, you park in one of the lots — big deal.
“Parking is not the most important thing in a downtown. If there is nothing to see because the streets don’t work, then you can have all of the parking in the world, and it is not going to help you. You have a lot of head-in parking, but how often is it filled?”
People do not like change, Platt said, adding that similar concerns about parking had been voiced during her streetscape work in Goldsboro.
“Everybody said we couldn’t lose a single space or everybody would die,” she said.
Local businesswoman Mary Miller, who opposes eliminating head-in parking, said that if she can’t find a place to park she would not go to Ribeyes.
“I don’t know about off-street parking, haven’t seen any signs,” she added. “And, I can’t walk very far either.”
That is because no one has looked at off-street parking, Platt responded.
Turner said most people probably do not know how to parallel park unless there are several open spaces available so that they can pull in.
Platt asked Miller if the problem was just on that one block. Miller agreed that was the case.
“If it is a one-block problem, and if you make the three blocks well lit with beautiful sidewalks, things to look at and shop windows filled with things to look at, full of interesting things — then it becomes worthwhile to park a little farther away and walk,” Platt said.
If the only criteria is how to maximize parking then you are basically thinking like a mall where people probably are parking farther away, she added.
Melissa Kilpatrick said that backing out of the head-in parking near Ribeyes when it is the busiest time of the day is “very dangerous.”
“If all of the spaces are full, you are backing out blindly until you get to a certain point,” she said.
With parallel parking there is more visibility, she added.
“If you want to keep head-in parking fine,” Platt said. “But I think it is a big mistake. I think that because I have been doing this for 35 years, and I know what people want and what works.”
Williams asked Platt about the possible investments that come to a downtown area following a streetscape project.
There is no average, it depends on the size of the town, Platt explained.
For example, Platt said that in Goldsboro she thinks it was about $80 million and about $140 million in New Bern.
“I think that we have to look at it in terms of long-term investment,” Williams said. “This will be a long-term investment. It is going to take us a long time to get there, and it is going to take a while to see the benefits of what we have done.
“If we don’t have a plan that will meet the criteria of the grant funding, then that is a significant strike. We won’t be able to do it at all.”
That has to be weighed, she added.
There are grants available that the town may be eligible for that would require no local match although local leaders could still decide to make one, Platt said.
Platt said politics plays into grants and as such it is important to have the support of state and federal legislators.
“If we can create an environment where people want to come downtown and be downtown how you park is not going to bring them or deter them,” Williams added.
“It is going to be what is in your downtown that is going to bring them there. There are other towns our size that have done this and done it well and have succeeded.”
Beck said she favors the parallel parking.
“I go to a lot of places, and I have never not gone to a town or restaurant because they only have parallel parking,” she said. “I am going because of what is in that community. I think it is the mindset that we say we can’t do this.
“But I think it is about that vision and that future and what is going to make our community grow, and we can have an attractive downtown, and we will hopefully bring in some more retail and people will come.”
