Fort Smith eyes doubling downtown parking rates, business association opposes

Downtown Fort Smith parking meters could soon see a 100% increase after not being updated since 1985, but one organization disapproves of the move.

At a recent Board of Directors meeting, a proposal was tabled to pursue further input from the Fort Smith Downtown Business Association (FSDBA), which voted with 80% support of free downtown parking in an intra-organizational survey earlier this year.

The proposal from City Administrator Carl Geffken would have increased rates from 25 cents for a full hour of parking on Garrison and Rogers Avenues to 50 cents, or “25 cents for half an hour, and, for the side streets, 25 cents for 40 minutes,” Geffken said.

“If you look at it on an hourly basis, it would be a 100% increase because it had been 32 years since any other increases, and a 50% increase for our side streets.”

With the rate increases, the city plans a capital outlay of approximately $270,000 to pay for upgraded meters and an automated gate at the downtown parking deck. The updated meters would allow parking customers to pay and replenish funds as well as pay fines from an app on their phone. The money to incorporate the upgrades would come from an existing $350,000 in the parking meter fund, and the expense would be replenished over the next three years from new revenues. As it stands, the city loses approximately $35,000 a year on parking. The move would maintain one parking enforcement employee.

As to the suggestion of free downtown parking, Geffken cautioned that “we do have businesses downtown, and if people decide to park in front of those businesses, then there’s no incentive for them to move, and then parking gets taken up with a person or car who has parked there the full day. I’ve seen it in other cities.”

With his proposal, Geffken believes the city can maintain its assets, pay for the upgrades, and establish a solvent parking fund. It also would not preclude the city from offering free parking promotions as it did last December with plans to do so again this year.

Geffken also expressed some flexibility on the possibility of free parking for the 2nd Street Farmer’s Market. FSDBA organizer Bobby Aldridge said that “Just like everything else, you’ll never get everybody agreeing to what needs to happen,” but noted that results haven’t changed much from the informal member survey earlier this year. The association has since grown from 25 members to around 85, “and we’ve heard from about half since this came about,” adding that the group was unanimous in its support for free parking at the Farmer’s Market.

Of the 20% who did not favor free parking, they were split between increasing fees, increasing fees with some free time (such as a lunchtime grace period), “or doing something different.”

“Our ultimate goal is to get people to downtown Fort Smith to visit our businesses, and it’s the business association’s view that free parking is the best way to obtain that, understanding we have issues with how you police it.”

One of those issues occurred during last December’s free parking period – something Aldridge called “awesome” as a whole – but “one of the downtown businesses didn’t play nicely with everybody else, and their employees parked in those parking spaces, even after repeated requests,” which were ignored.

“There has to be some way to self-enforce this, to have either monthly parking permits or annual parking permits for our employees and business owners,” Aldridge said.

Geffken plans to discuss parking options with FSDBA before bringing another proposal before the city’s Board of Directors.

The recent Propelling Downtown Forward strategic plan for downtown Fort Smith from Gateway Planning suggested not getting rid of paid parking because it becomes difficult to bring it back for future revenue. It also suggested making technology upgrades in tandem with price increases and utilizing technology that is “useful for today.” It also noted Fort Smith parking rates are well below averages from other downtown districts of similar size.