During a January City Council work session, Drew Pennywell, economic development specialist, presented several options to resolve potential parking issues in Old Town. Currently, there is no plan in place to provide funding future parking development, property acquisition or development support for the projected growth in the Old Town area.
Pennywell asked the Council for recommendations to refine the plan for Old Town parking. He also presented three options which included enforcement of the city of Burleson parking code which restricts the usage of privately-owned parking signs.
Burleson City Ordinance Section 63-73 “Prohibited Signs” are defined as those that imply exclusive private “to-go” and customer only parking. Other signs that threaten towing are prohibited under the ordinance because there are no such parking requirements in the Central Commercial Old Town zoning district.
Pennywell displayed a number of photographs illustrating various types of private customer-only parking signs set up by Old Town area establishments.
According to Pennywell, there are only a handful of agreements between the city of Burleson and businesses located in the Old Town area regarding parking arrangements. Currently, two reserved parking spaces are allowed to Spokes Bicycles as a part of their lease and Old Town Brewery’s right-of-way use agreement is to be reviewed every March. In a 2014 agreement letter, the city of Burleson states Babe’s Chicken gets two to-go parking spaces and includes the stipulation that the agreements are to stand until there is a formalized parking policy. Businesses that have current parking space agreements may be grandfathered.
Rolling out three options for a future parking plan, Pennywell said that Option 1 is a strict interpretation of city ordinance for all private signs in the business right-of-way. All businesses with private parking signage would be required to remove them. The economic development staff would need to modify previous agreements.
Option 2 would be to implement city enforced 15-minute spaces on strategic blocks and specified areas.
Favored by the innovation and development staff, Option 3 offers a private parking lease that allows businesses to lease two spots on the right-of -way with private signage at the annual cost of $200 per spot. Parking leases would be reviewed and renewed on an annual basis. Monies collected from the parking lease would be deposited into a fund used for the planning, acquisition, and development of public parking in Old Town.
According to Pennywell, by adding an exemption to city of Burleson Sign Code 63-73, which regulates incidental parking signs, the option will help to standardize parking agreements for all. The option also suggests the addition of Article VI titled “Leasing of Public Parking Spaces within the Old Town Overlay to Chapter 70 that describes “Streets, Sidewalks and Other Public Places.” Signage will be standardized to a 9-inch wide by 12-inch high, with black ‘To Go” Customer Parking lettering, affixed to a black metal 48-inch pole with a portable base. Bases must be removed when a business is not open.
Mayor pro tem Dan McClendon said that the city of Burleson historically has incentivized businesses that wanted to move to Old Town by building the 1.4-million-dollar parking lot renovation.
“To achieve the kind of development that we want to get in Old Town, a lot of pieces of land are not going to be large enough to accommodate the parking anytime a new building opens up,” McClendon said. “I personally like the idea of having a requirement for parking but being able to meet the payment in lieu of actual parking spaces helping the city to accommodate parking in a possible vertical structure.”
Pros for refining a plan for the district include helping Old Town achieve development and walkability goals.
According to Pennywell, disadvantages for not having a formal parking plan include no plan to provide funding future parking development, property acquisition or development support for the projected growth in the Old Town area.
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