Asheboro to implement strategies for downtown parking improvements

ASHEBORO — The City of Asheboro will be taking steps in the coming months to work toward improving parking availability downtown.

At the Asheboro City Council’s meeting last week, assistant city manager Trevor Nuttall presented to the council some short-term strategies that the staff figured could be implemented without any additional financial resources.

“We are not at a point where paid parking or additional investment in parking structures is recommended,” Nuttall said. “It is clear, though, that we need to change how we are managing what has become an increasingly scarce public resource and that is the publicly controlled parking resources downtown.”

Changes that the city would look to implement include changing ordinances pertaining to delivery zones and how they operate, adding additional signage and improving pavement markings for parking, enhancing pedestrian safety near public parking areas as well as a more consistent enforcement of parking restrictions.

Nuttall stated that the city will roll out a “robust educational campaign pertaining to parking restrictions,” and the expectation is that following this campaign, the city will begin a more consistent enforcement of the current parking restrictions.

“I’ve heard some suggestions that this is intended to be a revenue generator for the city,” Nuttall said “That’s certainly not the case. It’s not intended and it will not generate revenue for the city. The truth is, if effective, we won’t write many tickets and that’s what we’re all looking for.”

Nuttall also said that the city is also considering potential long-term strategies and additional enforcement tools such as booting for repeat offenders, although they would need authority from the General Assembly for that.

Of note, Nuttall stated that city staff isn’t recommending raising the price of a parking fine, which is $5.

“That $5 citation is a sensible place to have a ticket amount, not because it gets your attention, but because it’s a pretty soft penalty for a first-time offender who may truly not have known any better,” Nuttall said. “That does not mean we do not have the ability to use a citation to get a repeat offender’s attention.”

However, some council members weren’t as sold on maintaining the $5 parking fine.

“I think with a very aggressive educational process, we’ll get to those folks who are, right now, maybe staying over a little bit and too long,” council member Clark Bell said. “But I think that a $5 ticket is not going to be sufficient to minimize those who are abusing that timeframe.”

Rezoning hearing

The council also held a hearing for a request by Golden Waffle Real Estate to rezone approximately 0.5 acres of property located at 1315 Cliff Road from Low-Density, Single-Family Residential (R15) to General Commercial (B2).

“This is a general request,” community development director John Evans said. “There is no specific use or site plan that is identified as part of this request. … However, we believe it is a reasonable request that will allow for some investment into the property for future expansion of commercial activities.”

According to the city’s ordinances, “the B2 General Commercial District is intended to serve the convenience goods, shoppers’ goods retail and service needs of the motoring public, both local and transient.”

According to one of the owners for Golden Waffle, Ken Greene, the site is intended to be used for overflow parking, although they haven’t decided if they’re going to do anything else with it in the future.

The Asheboro City Council will next meet Sept. 4.