Residents of Hot Springs demand that the city’s leaders alter the increased parking fees

Hot Springs, Arkansas – Hot Springs’ downtown businesses are asking the city to modify its recent parking fines.

The Hot Springs Board of Directors decided last week to switch from free parking to paid parking in a few downtown locations.

The primary spots on Central Avenue will charge $2 per hour, up to a two-hour maximum. Subordinate sites situated further away from Central Avenue will charge $1 per hour.

The owner of a store in the downtown area Roger Crawford is pleading with the mayor to alter the fees, claiming that this will hurt everyone.

Crawford owns SunMed Your CBD business, where Brittany Borque, the business manager, stated that the owners are looking for change.

“We really just want to be able to have that discussion to change those rates and change those time limits,” Borque said.

Crawford expressed his fear that the parking costs would negatively affect his company and staff in an online petition he established in opposition to the proposal.

Borque noted that some people would have to make financial sacrifices as a result of having to pay 25 cents per hour for parking in secondary sites for those who work downtown.

“They don’t have the extra funds to spend on parking downtown just to go to their jobs to make money,” Borque said.

Hundreds of people have already signed the online informal petition, which has sparked additional discussions on revising the parking scheme as a whole. According to Borque, one component is considering raising the 4-hour time limit in priority locations.

“And even maybe changing the secondary parking to 1.25 rate versus a dollar rate that would cover what they’re asking the employees to pay,” Borque said.

There will be free parking available a short distance from the downtown area. According to city officials, this only affects roughly one-third of the parking overall. They also stated that the money raised will be used to improve the parking problem generally.

According to Borque, their only goal is to ensure that small company owners’ opinions are heard.

“We’re not trying to fight the city on this, we want to work with them, but it’s important to us that they know we have the concern about this,” Borque said.