Eureka Springs has experienced an increase in tourism this year. While that has been good for retail, restaurant and lodging businesses still recovering from the 2020 Covid-19 impacts, having more vehicles in town has exacerbated parking problems, especially for residents who don’t have off-street parking and live on narrow streets.
Linda McBride, who lives on Spring Street, has tried for years to get the city to address the situation. She said the problem is worse this year than ever on numerous streets in town including Spring, White, Elk, Mountain, Pine and Howell.
“There are no residential zones marked off in Eureka and that means even the tourists are confused as to where to park,” McBride said. “Therefore, they take up the space on the street in front of people’s homes leaving residents with nowhere to park. If the city council would pass a resolution establishing residential parking areas where residential owners had parking permits, tourists would know not to park there, and residents would have parking.”
McBride said B&Bs and overnight rentals are required to have off-street parking. But when owners don’t require their customers to use the off-street parking, which can be located down a flight of stairs, it also leaves no place for residents to park.
McBride said there is a solution.
“Google residential parking in tourist towns and entertainment districts, and you will find that tourist towns all over the U.S have solved their problems by having marked residential parking and residential parking permits,” she said.
The issue has been taken up by the Planning Commission, which held a workshop on it recently and plans more meetings. One Planning commissioner said he wasn’t sure designating residential parking areas would work because the police don’t have time to enforce it on weekends when there are many other demands on their time.
McBride doesn’t buy that.
“That’s a cop out,” she said. “It is their job. The police have a job to make our town good not just for tourists, but for the residents. You will never find a solution if you don’t try. This is a problem that has consistently gotten worse, and it will continue to get worse. People need a place to park and Eureka wasn’t built for cars.
“What’s going to happen is people are going to want to make places in their yards for parking. They will pour concrete in their yards for a parking space. Is that what Eureka is about? How much of your town do you want to protect for what people come here for?”
McBride doesn’t blame tourists, saying they are looking for an empty parking space and there is a lack of signage to let them know where to park.
Another Spring Street resident, Chris Barton, said she thinks the problem comes from giving too many Conditional Use Permits for tourist lodging per block.
“I’ve owned my house for forty-some years,” Barton said. “When I first bought the house and moved in, it was a neighborhood. And it gradually became kind of a commercial area. The tourist lodging units have off-street parking below them that goes mostly unused. The city needs to mandate that tourists park in their off-street parking lot.”
Barton said she has tried to talk to owners of a nearby B&B.
“They get testy,” Barton said. “I understand it is their business, but couldn’t they ask guests to park in the off-street parking? If guests are elderly or handicapped, I can understand they want to park close to the door. But if it is someone younger, I don’t understand why they can’t park below. If everyone could cooperate in the neighborhood and do the right thing to get along with everyone, to see our side of it, it would sure be helpful.”
Jay Wilks, who lives on Pine Street, has taken to putting up orange cones in their off-street parking space because people were parking there.
“We have had this happen three or four times,” Wilks said. “We and the neighbors have seen construction cones moved away from spots that would be a drop off for supplies or the construction dumpsters, by those looking for parking. Pine Street is always full of cars from everywhere. Pine, Mountain, and Elk streets are used for parking by tourists when they can’t find parking downtown.”
McBride said that in 1995, the city passed the first reading of an ordinance to establish residential parking zones. She isn’t sure why the ordinance didn’t go through the additional steps for approval. But she is proposing that it be taken up again.
“I no longer leave my home in my car on weekends or busy days because I won’t have a place to park when I get home,” she said. “I’m not the only one. My neighbor works late and leaves in early mornings. Some nights he can’t find a place to park and goes back to his farm.”
Speaking in public comments at a Planning Commission meeting, McBride said on a recent evening there were 18 cars parked on a section of Spring Street near Crescent Drive.
“Fourteen of those cars had available off-street parking and yet they parked on the street,” McBride said. “Many of my friends don’t leave their residences from Thursday until maybe Monday because of the parking issues. If you drive the Historic District on the weekends, you will see the problems on nearly every street. You will see vehicles parked across sidewalks and up in people’s yards. It is a mess.”
McBride said the issue is also difficult because there is nowhere for service vehicles to park.
“The parking problem in residential neighborhoods continues to escalate each day,” she said. “It is time for a solution, and sooner rather than later.”