It didn’t take for concerns about parking to be raised as the Community Appearance Board reviews plans for a 69-room hotel along the Riverwalk in downtown Conway.
Shortly after Stephen Ramos, the architect and design consultant for the proposed hotel at 320 Kingston Street, finished his presentation to the board, Duc Watts asked what has been on many people’s minds.
“The obvious questions is the parking. Is it going to be off-site?” Watts asked.
And as of right now, that is the plan, according to Kate Dennis — a city planner.
Because the city of Conway owns the land at 320 Kingston Street, Dennis says they are entering into a public-private partnership with the applicant — Kingston Hospitality.
“[Central Business District] does not require parking to construct, own or operate a business downtown,” Dennis said to the board. “So the parking would be located off-site… in a city owned property.”
A satellite shot depicting where the potential hotel in downtown Conway would be, and where its parking lot would be located.
Dennis says that if the hotel were to come to fruition and welcome guests to Conway, the city would produce a public parking facility for it.
The parking area is approximately .3 miles from the hotel.
She says the city would also eventually work on the old Trestle Bridge to make it “passable” and help connect the parking lot to the hotel.
After explaining how the parking space would operate, Gerry Wallace asked if anyone had looked at purchasing properties near to keep the parking lot closer.
“I love the design [of the hotel], but if y’all don’t have enough [parking] it’s going to take away from your neighbor’s businesses.”
Dennis then reminded the CAB they could not require anything that the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) doesn’t.
“The UDO does not require on-site parking, they are trying to accommodate a loading zone, some form of parking until a valet service of some type can take over and get those cars parked where they are permanently going to be while the guests are here. But unfortunately, [parking] can not be a contributing factor, or a deciding factor, on your decision. Your decision is [purely] aesthetic.”
