Officials say there is no plan in place to eliminate parking
After rumors circulating on social media about turning Market Square in downtown Durant into a park and removing parking, the Durant Area Chamber of Commerce organized a meeting on Monday at the Gordon Center with city offi cials and business owners to address those concerns.
An online petition was started to oppose turning Market Square into a park.
City officials said there is no funding for the project, and City Manager Pam Polk said it was part of a program for OU students obtaining master’s degrees.
“There was maybe a $2,000 grant from OU,” Polk said, in an interview after the meeting. “It’s called IQC for students that needed to do a master’s project. So, we applied and we applied along with DSC, Durant Sustainability Coalition, because they also wanted to look at Fifth and Sixth streets and doing something to beautify those streets and we said, ‘Well the only thing probably that we could have you look at because it’s been talked about for so long is Market Square.’” According to Polk, a report will be presented in May when the students are about to graduate.
She said the city is not mov- ing forward to make Market Square a park, and it was only a “pie in the sky” idea as the city looks for ways to draw more visitors to downtown Durant.
Matt Hunt, chairman of the Durant Tourism Economic Development Authority, said part of his responsibility is to bring people to Durant.
“We spend our money on tourism,” Hunt said. “So, as we think about what’s going on in Denison, the Choctaws. What’s going on out at the lake. We got the bypass around Durant. What are we doing to bring people to Durant? The tourism money is not to bring people to the lake. Not to bring people to the casino. It’s to bring people to Durant because if we don’t do something, they’re going to take that bypass and they’re going to completely go through. They’re just going to completely miss Durant and you’re talking about eight to 10 million people that visit the casino every year. How many are going to visit this lake property that they’re doing out here? How many people? What are we doing to bring people into town? Now, maybe Market Square’s not the answer, right?”
A person said removing parking from Market Square is not the answer, and Hunt replied that there are many different studies that reveal it could be.
It was stated that if the city is going to grow, there must be parking and losing parking will devastate the local economy.
Amber Foster, owner of The Pink Place, said the main problem was a lack of communication.
“This whole ordeal could have been avoided if someone had called a meeting,” Foster said.
Kari Walker spoke about the safety of the downtown and homeless people.
“I have two teenage daughters who I tell them not to go downtown after dark unless they can park in front of a business because of safety because of the homeless problem,” Walker said. “I think safety downtown is a big deal right now. I can tell you I don’t want my 18-and 15-year old down there after dark because it’s aggressive. So, that’s a big deal when we are killing downtown. There was a guy sleeping on the stage at Market Square for over a month.”
Polk said Police Chief Jesse Petty and Dani Mackey have organized a program that is making great strides with the homeless population.
She said the city is putting things in place, and none of it is meant to hurt local businesses.
“I’m always thankful for the businesses that a city does have in every city I’ve been in because I know we have choices,” Polk said.
Polk pointed out that Oklahoma municipalities operate solely on sales tax and utility fees.
“The whole goal is to get more people downtown to increase new business traffic, everybody’s business traffic to get those 22 empty buildings filled up and in my mind, a parking situation is a great problem to have because then we know that we have the foot traffic and we have businesses that are thriving downtown,” Polk said. “So to have a parking issue in my mind is always a wonderful thing.”
Mayor Martin Tucker said they are trying to grow the city and be thoughtful and careful in planning.
“This particular issue that we’re talking about today is not something we’re doing,” Tucker said.
He spoke of the new animal shelter the city is constructing and that it took three years to get that project started.
“No one’s going to sneak in on the parking at Market Square,” Tucker said.
Tucker agreed the downtown area needs more parking.
“We have no capital funds to build parking lots,” Tucker said. “It would be good if we did. If we did, we would be out building them. We’d build a parking garage if we had the money for that.”
Council Member Humphrey Miller said that the only way he would even consider making Market Square a park is if additional parking was made available first.
“We find the parking places, make sure they’re available first,” Miller said. “Make sure we have more than what we have in Market Square already. Then, we can start talking about this, but as far as it stands, I’ve seen no plan.”
Gzim Krasniqi, co-owner of Roma Italian Restaurant, spoke about problems he has had with the city’s zoning requirements.
Polk replied, “I heard horror stories when I got here about permitting and the process taking too long, so we’ve already broken down some of those barriers. We’ve already changed things because anywhere I have ever been, my thoughts, my motto has been, let’s get to yes. Of course, we’re not going to do anything that’s going to be illegal or against a city ordinance or anything, but we do want to be business friendly, and we can make these things happen, and I am so sorry for what happened to you guys during that time period.”
Tucker said one of Polk’s primary responsibilities when she was named city manager was to make the city business friendly because it had become very business unfriendly.
“That staff has been turned over, and I think they have a different perspective on things,” Tucker said. “We are right now in the middle of rewriting the codes. We’ve hired an expert again, and I think Humphrey’s joining in on those calls with me. So, we’re trying to make the codes better.
“I’m not going to call out any names but there’s some pretty fresh wounds in this room right now about going through this process to satisfy whatever the code is and the code enforcement guys. We’re doing everything we can to make that better because we understand that that is a big constraint on capital coming into our city and we want the opposite of that.”
