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HomeNewsNew City of Clarksville Parking Lot Access Policy begins September 3rd, 2012

New City of Clarksville Parking Lot Access Policy begins September 3rd, 2012

City of ClarksvilleClarksville, TN – On September 3rd, 2012, a new parking lot access policy will be put into place. The Parking Authority Board has voted to discontinue the practice of leasing individual assigned spaces and will begin leasing lot access instead.

The practical effect of this change is that rather than receiving a tag identifying a specific lot and space number, customers will receive a tag identifying only the lot in which they have leased space. Each driver will then be able to park in any space in the assigned lot.

“As I’ve said before, we’re continually looking at ways to encourage development and business location in the downtown area. One of the issues that concern every business owner is available parking for their employees. I believe this is a reasonable approach that will reap immediate benefits for employers, employees, and customers. The fact that this process is already working in one of the downtown lots shows that it can be successful,” said Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan.

The Board’s vote followed a parking inventory that showed peak occupancy rates in leased lots is currently around 70%. In order to attract more development in the downtown district, and to maximize lot usage, the Authority’s decision to lease lot access will allow more people to park in these spaces and will offer more parking alternatives for business owners and their employees. The practice was recommended by the Desman study in 2009 and is already in place in the Third Street lot.

“I have advised the Two Rivers Co. and the Downtown Clarksville Association about the change and the majority opinion is that it will be positive and is another way to stimulate growth.

As it is, when business owners are interested in locating in the downtown area and call about merchant parking in the Roxy lot, for example, they are turned away because of the old lease policy. This new process will allow some flexibility. We would like to consider this option in the future for our other leasing facilities, including our garages, but only after the concept has been thoroughly studied,” said David Smith, Parking Manager.

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