CLARKSVILLE, Tenn – Downtown merchants and property owners gathered Wednesday to hear City officials and consultants from Premier Parking outline potential changes to on-street metered parking in Downtown Clarksville.
City officials said the changes would create a more consumer friendly approach to downtown parking and overcome some of the current system’s equipment and enforcement challenges.
The plan discussed includes:
- Deactivating all parking sensors, and making downtown parking a “pay to play” environment.
- A 25-cent payment will be required at all meters to start a downtown parking session.
- The first 25 cents provides 15 minutes of parking time and one hour of courtesy time.
The proposal calls for two types of payment structures at street meters:
- One-hour of courtesy time with parking sessions limited to 3 hours on Strawberry Alley, Franklin Street and Third Street.
- One-hour of courtesy time with parking sessions limited to 8 hours on First and Second streets.
In discussion, some property owners said the meters on First and Second streets between Main and Commerce streets should be limited to 3 hours, and not expanded to 8 hour maximums.
Another commenter noted that the start of work on Montgomery County’s Multipurpose Events Center will complicate downtown parking and that plans should be made to accommodate inevitable construction-related parking.
The Parking Commission will meet next at 3 p.m. July 30. Mayor Joe Pitts said he expects to have another Parking Roundtable with the downtown business community before a new plan is implemented.