‘There’s no alternative’: Businesses push to save parking spaces in downtown Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Downtown Augusta businesses are up in arms over plans to replace parking with bike lanes — something that could affect all of us.

The businesses – including restaurants on Broad Street – have launched a petition drive that’s gained 1,500 signatures so far.

“We don’t wanna see a net loss of parking on Broad Street,” said Penelope Ballas-Stewart, 4th generation owner of Luigis.

Downtown Augusta is full of parking on the street right now. That includes convenience spaces in the median of Broad Street.

That could all change as part of a plan to revamp downtown – all on the heels of the removal of countless towering trees, a move that’s drawn criticism from some.

It’s not so much about what’s being built, but what could get taken away.

“We already have a parking deficit,” said Ballas-Stewart. “Some areas of Broad Street are worse than others. We, on this end, happen to have a little bit more of a unique situation because we don’t have parking decks that are within walking distance. We’re surrounded by private lots. So there is no alternative parking for us. And the little bit that could be added on Ellis Street is not going to offset what we need, moving forward.”

Growth is the goal, but for some, the growing pains are hard to ignore.

“They want to be heard,” said Ballas-Stewart.

And more than 1,500 are doing so on this petition.

“The priority really should be to encourage growth and to encourage more development downtown on Broad Street, and removing parking is definitely not going to achieve that,” said Ballas-Stewart.

If you come downtown on a Friday and Saturday night, you know an open spot is rare. That’s what some businesses want to highlight–they need more parking, not less.

“We already have people parking on the median, customers who drive around, and one of the things with the petition is we’ve had some people leaving comments, and several handicapped people have expressed their unhappiness with the plan to remove parking on Broad Street because there won’t be a good option for them,” said Ballas-Stewart.

So they are calling on those in charge to listen.

“They’re trying to work with us and hear us and, you know, the city pressured the engineering department to meet with us,” she said. “Hopefully it will be to have a little more dialogue about making the adjustments that we need for this project.”

For business owners, they want to show up not for themselves, but for the future of downtown.

“It’s challenging because Augusta, as desperately as we want to be a Greenville or Savannah, even I’m not sure that we’re quite there yet,” said Emma Claire Hansen, who works at Merry’s Home Furnishings. “I hope that we do get there one day, where it is full of pedestrians who are coming down the sidewalks and riding their bikes downtown. Right now, I’m not sure that it’s all that necessary. But perhaps they see a different end goal than we do. I would be more concerned with parking than the bicycle lane.”

Luigi’s Italian restaurant started the petition that’s been ed by other downtown businesses like Merry’s Home Furnishings, Tribeca Lounge, the Imperial Theatre, the multi-restaurant Frog Hollow Group, Nacho Mama’s and the Sports Center.

“So downtown parking, obviously they are very old streets and it can be a bit of a challenge because the roadways are very narrow down here and there’s not a ton of parking in downtown to begin with,” Hansen said.

Many people are worried about that end goal taking away parking spots they say are needed – potentially taking away business.

“At Merry’s, it’s not as big of a challenge because we are here during the daytime, so it’s a little easier to park here during the daytime,” Hansen said. “But for restaurants, of course, they already seat more people than parking allows in front of their restaurants, so when it gets busy and everyone is coming down for dinner, it’s a challenge.”

One business told News 12 off camera that a key concern is surviving through the construction that downtown construction work will bring.

The businesses seem to agree on wanting to see improvements downtown.

They just don’t want to lose business because of it.

“We love downtown Augusta. We’ve seen a lot of ups and downs with being here, but we’re super excited for the development that they are planning here,” Hansen said. “I don’t think there’s anyone in Augusta who doesn’t want downtown to be better and more beautiful and more accessible. We would love to see more businesses come here.”

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By the numbers: Parking in downtown Augusta

1. The question of parking came up less than a month ago at a meeting of Augusta Commission . The transportation engineering staff told commissioners:
2. There are 760 total parking spots on the surface street, including the recessed parking wells. The number would be about 620 if they were made standard.
3. Most, if not all surface street parking stalls are substandard, causing, among other issues, crooked parking.
4. Officials say the current parking spaces are too narrow, based on current vehicle sizes. They gave a presentation demonstrating that vehicles have gotten larger since the 1990s.
5. Construction plans show 590 street-level parking spaces.
6. There are underutilized spots downtown in four available parking decks, including one that on a recent check only had 15% of spaces used and another that was only 31% full.

One business even hired its own architect to look at improving Augusta with more parking – developing a plan to show local leaders.

News 12 reached out to local officials, and we’re still waiting to hear back.

But there’s a meeting about this that we will continue to follow.

That meeting is at 5 p.m. Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Fat Man’s Cafe on Greene Street.

It’s a time when downtown business owners and others can learn about work timelines and their impacts.

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