Parking town hall scheduled

Mayor Joe Hardy led off this week’s city council meeting with an unexpected statement regarding an item that was not on the agenda. At least not until next week.

Although he never used the word “parking” or referred to the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) he really didn’t have to, given the substantial amount of public interest in the proposal to reconfigure the street and sidewalks along Nevada Way.

“Some of you may be aware of the fact-finding things the city is going through now trying to be transparent and trying to get as much input and as many opinions as we can,” he began.

Given that the proposed project that would see the sidewalks widened by six feet on the north side of the street and two feet on the south side and have parking moved to the center of the street is in the advanced planning stages and that bidding for the work closed last week, the next bit probably came as a bit of surprise to some.

“We have not made a decision,” he stated. “Things are happening, but that is a process.”

The mayor referenced a meeting that was announced just days ago. It is scheduled for Monday at 5 p.m. and is being pitched as the “Nevada Way Reconstruction Town Hall.” The flyer put out online by the city says, “Now is your chance to learn more about this project, which will ensure Nevada Way complies with ADA, beautify and enhance this historic roadway. The project is intended to create a vibrant, safe, accessible and attractive gathering place for residents and tourists.”

The meeting appears to come in response to a pretty massive outpouring of discontent from residents on social media after news of the plans were published. There have been at least a dozen posts on Facebook and Nextdoor about the project. Some have more than 100 replies and those are almost 100% opposed to the plan.

After a final meeting with business owners earlier this month and a non-official meeting of residents with an interest in business development, Public Works Director Gary Poindexter announced that his department would do a “dry run” on Tuesday morning of this week at 5:30 a.m. and put up cones and then park city vehicles so that interested parties willing to get up that early could get a sense of what it would look like in practice. (See the photo on page 6 for a look at that dry run.)

Hardy referenced that exercise in passing saying, “Our public works director, I didn’t get up to see if he was leaving on time this morning but I understand he got up and was showing a way it could look at 5 o’clock this morning.”

As the city reiterated on their flyer, staff invited business owners to share their input throughout 2024, but the project, which is funded by the Regional Transportation Commission, goes back way further than that. The funding was accepted in 2022.

While most of the talk about the project keeps saying it is a parking project, in truth, parking is secondary. The real issue is that, as of right now, the sidewalks on Nevada Way through the Historic District, especially between Arizona and Ash, are not ADA compliant.

The ADA requires that sidewalks have at least four feet of unimpeded space so that disabled people using wheelchairs or even mobility carts can pass through without dodging obstacles.

In that stretch (as well as on Arizona outside of The Dillinger) the obstacles are tables and chairs set there for outdoor dining. Business owners have been putting tables and chairs outside since at least 2007, and some years ago the city formalized the practice by allowing what are known as “encroachment permits.” For a small, one-time fee and proof of liability insurance, business owners can encroach on the sidewalk. The ordinance says that there must be four feet of space between tables but, as anyone who has tried to walk that stretch when the weather is nice and restaurants are busy can attest to, actual space available is often less than half of that.

The conflict is going to be between business owners who do not want to give up outdoor tables and change-averse residents who don’t want the area to change. At all.

“We invite people to come and to have opinions and to share what we can do and choose to do and we are very anxious to keep hearing,” Hardy said, reiterating. “That has not been decided by the council.”

Note that the meeting is at the Elaine K. Smith Building at 700 Wyoming St. and that facility does not have cameras and so the town hall will not be available online.