GREENSBORO, N.C. — The City of Greensboro wants to revamp downtown parking. It's a frustrating topic for those who frequent downtown. Leaders just released a new plan they hope will improve the situation
The Draft Downtown Parking Plan is available for public review January 2024. Read the full plan document.
If you go downtown often, you're probably used to seeing the free parking spots along Elm Street.
Proposed changes could mean those spots will transition to paid parking. In exchange, some metered spots in lower-demand areas, could become free.
A consultant hired by the city made several suggestions after surveying hundreds of people about downtown parking.
Recommendations for the revamped parking include:
- Modernize and simplify policies and procedures.
- Invest to off-setting displaced parking in the south end of Elm Street.
- Charge for parking in high-demand areas like Elm Street. Parking would transition to free on the fringes of downtown, in lower-demand areas.
- Generate more turnover by charging for parking in high-demand areas and enforcing time limits.
- Expand parking enforcement hours to include Saturdays and evenings until 8 pm.
- Transition to pay stations instead of parking meters.
- Address the maintenance backlog in parking decks.
The thing people want the most, is more on-street parking.
"In the parking industry, the way you get to that is by charging for those spaces, and by enforcing those spaces, that encourages turn over, so the more turn over you end up having in those spaces, the more likely that one will be available when you drive by," Stephen Carter, Business and Parking Manager for the Department of Transportation said.
People like Priscilla Potts, a Triad native who frequents Downtown Greensboro on a weekly basis says she would be upset if the free parking spots she often goes to were switched to paid parking spots. She told WFMY News 2's Nixon Norman she has health issues that make walking long distances harder.
"It would be so inconvenient, it’s so inconvenient, I don’t want to park anywhere else cause it’s so far from where I need to park, and I have issues, so I don’t wanna walk from my free spots that I usually park at because they’ve changed the price," Potts said.
One of the other changes looking to be made, are improvements and upgrades to existing downtown parking decks. Through the survey, people had mentioned that using the parking decks here made them feel unsafe.
Local business owner of The Bodega Convenience Store downtown, Daniel Leonard, welcomes these improvements.
"Where would they like to park at? If they’re going to park in the deck… do they feel comfortable with that? Do they feel safe? Do they need more lighting? You know… is it too expensive? You know, cause that’s really where the opinion matters, we’re [local businesses] going to be here regardless but we want people to come down and have a place to park to come and see our establishments," Leonard said.
Some of those upgrades to the parking decks downtown would include: better and more lighting, continued maintenance on infrastructure and possibly security doors.
"That is our goal, for people to feel very comfortable- anytime of day, parking in the decks. We would like them to be bright and inviting and you know, we have aging infrastructure that requires a lot of investments so I think that’s one of the significant challenges we face," Carter said.
Residents, business owners, visitors, and other downtown stakeholders are invited to review and submit comments on a proposed Downtown Parking Plan by March 15.
Review and comment on the plan at www.greensboro-nc.gov/DowntownParkingPlan.
Greensboro's City Council would need to approve the 5-year plan before it would go into effect.