Restaurant and bar owners worried about parking ordinance

To COH Council Dec 1

Jay Blazek Crossley, Nov 23, 11.

Some owners of small restaurants and bars are worried about proposed changes to the City of Houston parking ordinance that will require additional provisions for automobile based patrons, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Debate over the proposed revisions has sparked a discussion on social media networks like Twitter that the current discussion makes Houston seem “small time, not big city” according to the Houston Chronicle Newswatch Blog.

The process remains open for public input as City Council will take up the issue in December, according to Culturemap Houston:

After input from restaurant and bar owners last week, the City of Houston Planning Commission reexamined the proposed Off-Street Parking Ordinance Thursday.

“This is not the end of the process,” said Marlene Garfrick, director of the planning and development department, explaining that comments from the meeting would help to shape the final document, which will be presented to Houston City Council Dec. 1.

Restaurateurs and bar owners are up in arms about the severity of proposed parking spot increases: The new city ordinance would require future restaurants to offer 10 spots per 1,000 square feet of service area (up from the existing 8 spot requirement), and future bars to offer 14 spots (up from 10).

Scott Repass, owner of Black Hole Café and Poison Girl in Montrose and Antidote in the Heights, told the commission that the parking impositions would not help a neighborhood develop in the way that the residents want. For instance, if a big chain restaurant wanted to move in, it would have the resources and the gall to tear down an existing structure (and surrounding ones) to make room for a gigantic building with sufficient parking, he said.

Planners hope to see more parking management districts, and they want to offer incentives for shared parking, bike and pedestrian accessibility and historical preservation.

Small, local businesses likely don’t have the same resources, Repass said, but they do foster a greater connection to the community. In the days after Hurricane Ike, Repass and his partners opened up their coffee shop and bar — despite the lack of profitability — to a community in need of a place to gather.

Comments

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

Its a wonder the city of Houston hasn’t had to ‘eat’ what it did to people near the intersection of Taft and Lovett, just off westheimer. What was once a street that had open parking along it- both sides of Lovett- now has a nighttime restriction. The problem here is nobody realizes it when they see cars with ‘permits’ parked there. Thus in the face of austerity, somehow the city of Houston finds the money to hire a nighttime employee to direct wreckers to tow off massive numbers of vehicles. Cost to citizens of this city: about $250.00 a pop not to mention the salary of this COH employee.

Posted on Nov 23, 11 at 7:18 am

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