Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 20, 1991 TAG: 9102200224
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Blacksburg officials are moving ahead with plans to revamp the Progress Street parking lot - otherwise known as "the maze."
The parking lot will get a new coat of asphalt, trees and shrubs, walkways, benches, street lamps, and 30 additional public parking spaces, for a total of about 130.
The cost to park there will increase from 10 cents to 25 cents an hour, with a two-hour limit, to pay for the estimated $300,000 overhaul.
Located between Progress and North Main streets at College Avenue, the lot has confounded downtown shoppers for years with its one-way entrances and exits, blind corners and bumpy surface.
Town Manager Ron Secrist said that construction should start May 5, the day after Virginia Tech's graduation, and be finished a week before classes start in the fall.
Parking will be available during construction, which will be done in phases, said Public Works Director Adele Schirmer. But she encouraged drivers to park elsewhere this summer.
The project was delayed last year because contractors' bids too high, Secrist said. This year, the town is advertising earlier in the construction season, which should bring in lower bids, he said.
Some citizens had asked the town not to pave over the stream that runs through the parking lot. But engineering studies showed it would be impractical and costly to maintain the stream as an open waterway, Schirmer said.
Blacksburg officials have worked for several years to negotiate an agreement with the dozen or so people who own property in the lot. Secrist said all the property owners had signed a joint-agreement earlier this month.
Blacksburg will keep all the revenue from the parking meters for five years to pay for the improvements. After that, the property owners will split the money according to how much land they have in the parking lot.
The contract will expire in 2001, but Secrist said he anticipates it will be renewed.
He said the 10-year expiration has no connection to the town's plans for a downtown parking deck, which is currently being studied in conjunction with Tech.
A joint subcommittee will choose from among 30 proposals from architectural and engineering firms to do a detailed study.
Tech's Donaldson Brown Continuing Education Center parking lot is the favored site for the proposed 500-space deck. However, an underground stream and other geological conditions pose potential engineering problems and may prohibit building a deck more than one-story high.
Secrist said the study will examine several possibilities, including extending a one-level deck to adjacent town property near the Armory.
That option doesn't necessarily preclude the town's plans for an amphitheater at the Armory, Secrist said. "It might still work."
A recent recommendation from the state Architectural Review Board said the deck should be made of brick, and not higher than the surrounding buildings.
Tech and town officials, having discussed the idea for several years, had hoped to have the deck built by the time the remodeled Squires Student Center opens, scheduled for August.
Blacksburg Transit Manager Michael Connelly said he is talking with Tech officials about providing Blacksburg Transit shuttle service from the student center to outlying parking lots on the university's campus to help ease the expected downtown parking crunch.
by CNB