MODERN TIMES
Art Hobson
ahobson@uark.edu
NWA Times 23 May 2009
Parking and the
future of the WAC
As usual, the automobile is right at the
center of the problem. The
problem, in this case, is
facilitating the growth of the Walton Arts Center.
Fayetteville
has avoided paying the high costs of America's car culture and it's coming back
to haunt us. We should long ago
have built adequate decked parking near Dickson Street. But because that costs big bucks, we've
avoided it, preferring instead to scrape by with land-gobbling flat lots such
as the one west of the WAC. The
result is acres of underused and ugly downtown space that spreads out the urban
fabric and forces pedestrians to walk longer distances. Around 1991 during the WAC's
construction, I joined others in calling for multistory parking on that lot,
with a smaller footprint but more parking than the present lot, and shops
around the outside. But that was
considered impractical.
Additional
Dickson Street parking has been needed for years, and now the WAC's future
needs are bringing the problem to a head.
Consultants last year deemed the present facility too small to support
the large shows that are justified by audience demand, and recommended that a
2200-seat auditorium, a 600-seat theater, and a 100-seat theater be added to
the present facility. The
price: $180 million.
The
consultants selected three possible locations for the new facilities: downtown Fayetteville, Pinnacle Hills
in Rogers, and the Crystal Bridges Museum campus in Bentonville. Pinnacle Hills out on the bypass is the
worst of all possible locations and I'm glad the consultants ranked this dreary
piece of car-oriented real estate below the other two locations.
It's
not the end of the world if the new facilities go to Bentonville. The WAC's present facilities would stay
here, with space for many kinds of performances, while the biggest acts would
migrate north. We'd lose the big
performances but gain a facility more geared to Fayetteville and University
interests and more devoted to the fine arts that most Fayettevillians
prefer.
On
the other hand, it's more natural for the performance arts to remain in
Fayetteville's entertainment district.
There's probably room for the new facilities to fit onto the present grounds,
although the present building's bizarre 45-degree orientation makes this
difficult. I hope that any new
facilities will have a smaller footprint, present a less overbearing outward
appearance, and show more respect for the street than the present structure.
Parking
could be the Achilles heel of any WAC expansion in Fayetteville. Without at least 1000 additional
parking spaces, there's no way the expansion can occur on Dickson Street. Fayetteville cannot go wrong by
starting now to build new decked parking for at least 1000 additional cars,
because the parking is needed now in any case, even if the WAC expansion
doesn't occur here.
A
plan to do this was developed during the past three years. Signet Development has proposed adding
1000 additional spaces without disrupting present Dickson Street parking during
the construction period. The plan
is to build a 350-space parking deck and mixed-use building on the current site
of Grub's Bar and Grille and the small parking lot just south across Spring
Street. Once that lot is ready for
use, the present 300-space lot west of the WAC would be closed and
reconstructed into a 950-space parking deck surrounded by mixed use buildings. Voila: 1000 additional spaces, additional mixed use space, and no
reduction in parking during construction.
But
who will pay for all this? A
parking fee at the WAC lot could do it, but that might kill the golden goose by
alienating Dickson Street customers.
The city should help, our Advertising and Promotion Commission should
help, and perhaps outside grants are available. But I'm guessing that a solution must come mainly from the
merchants who will benefit from the expanded parking, perhaps in the form of a
Dickson Street improvement district that will tax Dickson Street
businesses. This necessarily means
that merchants must charge more, but that's as it should be under our market
system. People will be willing to
pay a little extra to come to an action-packed Dickson Street. Cars cost big bucks and somebody's
going to have to pay if we want to attract drivers (and most of us are drivers,
unfortunately) to Dickson Street.
It's
always seemed to me that downtown churches should chip in for decked city
parking, instead of maintaining their present ugly and space-consuming flat
lots. Churchgoers could park at
the WAC lot and take a short walk or bus ride to church.
The
Dickson Street parking dilemma is another argument for a meaningful Northwest
Arkansas bus and light rail network.
Much will change the moment we adopt a light rail plan. Transit-oriented development will
immediately be attracted to the area around the Dickson Street train
depot. WAC expansion on Dickson
Street will become more feasible because of easy train access. And customers arriving by train or bus
will not need parking.
If
Dickson Street is to continue to prosper, we must think realistically about
parking. If we'd done that in
1991, we'd already have the multistory parking we need. And if we'd thought long-term about our
mass transit needs, we we'd have a system to bring people to the WAC by bus and
be well on our way to a light rail system. If we instead continue business as usual without decked
parking we'll not only lose the WAC expansion, we'll also witness the decline
of Dickson Street.