City staff have recommended Block Avenue keep its back-in parking, after considering a switch to pull-in parking following complaints from drivers in Fayetteville.
Now the recommendation goes to the City Council over the next week-and-a-half for approval.
The city in 2010 constructed parking spaces on Block Avenue requiring drivers to back in to the open spots. Drivers can then pull forward without backing up to exit the parking spaces.
City officials revisited the back-in parking issue last month following complaints from drivers.
"Some folks are fine with it, others feel like it would be a lot easier if they could pull in," Chris Brown, city engineer, said. "If you drive down that street and you don't have the need to park there you are sort of indifferent, but if you do want to access one of the businesses and have difficulty parking they have very strong opinions too."
Transportation Committee members considered two options. The more expensive option would have included modifying the concrete islands, milling the asphalt and restriping for pull-in parking. That option would have decreased the number of spaces from 28 to 25 and would have cost $42,720, according to a memo from city engineer Chris Brown to City Council members.
The less expensive option would have included milling and restriping the parking spaces, but making no changes to the concrete islands. This option would have lost eight parking spaces and had an estimated cost of $28,077, according to the city document.
"It's probably going to affect a project like sidewalks, a project in a neighborhood that the council approved," Brown said. "So they'll have to change their work plan, probably a couple of weeks out of their work plan. Ultimately at least one project will suffer."
After discussion and listening to public input, committee members forwarded a resolution to the City Council for approval that states the council “reaffirms the back-in parking design on Block Avenue between Dickson Street and Spring Street.”
The resolution appears in the agenda for Tuesday's City Council Agenda Session, which was released Friday. If the resolution is approved Tuesday by the aldermen, it will still need to be addressed a week later at the regular City Council meeting in order for the resolution to receive full approval.