Spruce and Fifth Street Neighborhood Meeting – What Will Happen To Local Businesses?

5100 block of Spruce – business parking spaces have been blocked, loss of parking at Jax. Click for larger image.

Some background: On March 19, 2018,  Public Works presented a plan to City Council to reconstruct the 5100 and 5200 blocks of Spruce St. and three blocks of North Fifth by the new H-E-B grocery. (Watch the meeting here.) The plan would add public angled parking along the north side of Spruce and the east side of Fifth on City right of way and narrow the streets, eating up the right of way.  See Costello Overlays Updated May 2018 . Also fancy lamp posts and trees.  Paid for by bond funds for streets and drainage.

5200 block of Spruce – more blocked parking spaces belonging to the businesses. Click for larger image.

Sixty foot wide Spruce would be narrowed to 25 feet with the public parking.  Fifth would be widened to 60 feet with angled parking added along the side of H-E-B,  so the two traffic lanes will be 25 feet wide. Why here, why now?  The explanation given by the City was beautification, based on the Comprehensive Plan and a study by Terrain Studio.  You can find information on plans and studies in a recent post.

If beautification of our downtown area is so important what’s with that awful striping layout on the street in the 5200 block of Cedar?  No effort expended for a sidewalk or beautification there, that’s for sure.  Even though that block contains retail and food businesses.

Business and property owners spoke up at the meeting.  100% of them are opposed to the angled parking and are concerned about their future.  Many of the businesses receive deliveries by large trucks, however those trucks will no longer be able to enter the parking areas adjacent to the businesses.  Jax will lose a number of spaces and that will impact their business.

No explanation has been provided as to why this is proposed for a commercial street that runs behind a large grocery store.  H-E-B is adamant that they had nothing to do with this and planned their delivery area along Spruce based on a street width of 60 feet.  The area contains no small boutiques or shops except for a small bakery on Fifth – which will lose its parking spaces. No explanation on why businesses must suffer for all this beauty, either.

Fifth St from Locust to Bissonnet. The salon on the corner of Spruce and Fifth will lose private parking spaces. Parking spaces for Jones Blair and the small bakery will be lost.  Click for larger image.

The angled parking would block the use of private parking spaces for numerous businesses and eradicate spaces for others. It would prevent deliveries by large trucks and require business owners and their customers to use public parking spaces.