City looks to address commercial parking as businesses express concerns about changes

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – The City of College Station’s decision to ban commercial parking is now heading back to the drawing board. A complete parking ban is proving to have some unintended consequences.

“The tipping point was Ponderosa Drive,” Senior Traffic Engineer Randell Smith said. “As one of the city council members called it, it’s a whack-a-mole. And that’s why the city council wants to address it with a more holistic approach so that way we don’t keep doing these small removals and that way we can address the problem in a much larger fashion.”

Smith and other city staff have been approached many times about commercial parking concerns on Ponderosa Drive. One of the businesses along the roadway, Premiere Events, says this was blocking the view of the business, requiring drivers to make risky moves when pulling out of parking lots.

“The parking situation has been a problem since we purchased this company in 2016,” President and Chief Culture Officer at Premiere Events, Delores Crum, said. “Once we knew the problem, which was commercial zoning on our street then we knew how the problem might be able to be resolved and what steps we’re going to be needed to help make that happen.”

Crum said she began speaking with city leaders years ago. Sharing her concerns and trying to find a way to remove those commercial vehicles. Just last month, her request was met with approval.

But, it caught some neighbors off guard to see a blanket parking ban on the south side of the street rather than just a commercial parking ban. Smith says the proposal that was approved was more extreme than what businesses asked for and shows holes in current procedures.

“City council’s approach was what we’ve always done. It was the blanket removal, however, by doing that they inadvertently were impacting companies like D&D Moving who have become used to and have been able to use the all-street parking for their smaller vehicles for their employees or even their lighter box trucks,” he said,

D&D Moving spoke with KBTX Tuesday, sharing concerns about how this could be devastating to their business. Owner, Dan Daniels, said they allow overnight moving truck returns, where a customer is instructed to leave the truck parked outside the property’s gate along the roadway. Daniels says those are moved onto the property first thing in the morning. These vehicles are not considered commercial and Daniels says he was in full support when hearing about neighbors pushing for a commercial parking ban.

But when the full parking ban came out, he says he was shocked.

“It would definitely be detrimental to our business. We had our district manager from Penske come in today and had a discussion with me,” Daniels said. “There would be a good chance that they would terminate our agency due to the fact that not having sufficient parking returns for the customers.”

Despite those concerns, Crum says even though this parking ban was more than she asked for, she’s happy with the results and improvements to visibility for drivers and her business.

“We’d love to keep it the way that it is. No parking at least on this side of the street with the opposite side of the street still being open to those options,” she said. “I think that helps our business and our team in so many ways. Now you can actually pull out onto the street and not be afraid that you’re taking your life in your hands. Our customers who visit realize there’s actually showroom here and you can actually come in and browse your rental options and look at your opportunities to help make an event really fabulous.”

Smith says with this situation, it has shown the need for discussions about citywide commercial parking bans. There will be a public city meeting regarding a citywide ban on August 30, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at City Hall.

“I want everyone to be able to come and speak and share their opinions. We want to hear every side. We want everyone to have a voice. We will be having at least one more workshop and we will have an open meeting in the next few weeks and where you can come and share your opinions and your thoughts whether it’s for or against the citywide truck parking,” Smith said.