FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM)-- During Tuesday night's Fayetteville City Council Meeting, the council voted to change what can be used for event parking for groups like the Walton Arts Center in the entertainment district.
Before the vote, the center needed 600 ticket sales to request event parking in the West Avenue parking lot.
Now they only need 500 ticket sales and could use the Spring Street Parking Deck as well as the West Avenue lot.
Jennifer Wilson, the director of public relations at the Walton Arts Center said she knows that parking is a premium in that area.
She said more of their shows will benefit from the change and possibly draw more people to the entertainment district.
Many people around Dickson Street in Fayetteville told 5NEWS that they thought parking was horrible.
One man even said he would like to see the cost of parking be the same no matter where you try to park in Downtown Fayetteville.
Wilson said that there is parking for those worried about finding a spot just to grab a bite to eat during one of their events.
She said they just may have to walk a ways to get where they are going.
“The good thing for us for Northwest Arkansas and Fayetteville is it’s a very popular area," said Wilson. "So there’s a lot of people down here. Cities twice our size face this challenge. It’s something that is probably going to need to be addressed further down the road on how we keep developing the area and address the parking that we have.”
Alli McDaniel, a student at the University of Arkansas, said she is aware of some of the issues people have with parking but is fine with the change.
“I think that it’s a huge attraction here and I think that the amount of people that come to this kind of thing I think there should definitely be more parking," said McDaniel. "Because I feel like for the amount now its lessening their crowd because there’s not enough space for people to park.”
The ordinance passed also allows the mayor to call for event parking for something that he deems necessary.
They city says the fee to use event parking locations will not change.