The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Page 5
Mayor Perkins & Co. Flee Downtown by john hammer editor
Mayor Robbie Perkins at several meetings has bragged about living and working downtown. Not any longer. Perkins is president of NAI Piedmont Triad Commercial Real Estate, which recently moved its office out of the downtown. Perkins gave the same reasons for the move as have many other business owners that have moved out of the downtown over the years. The first thing he mentioned was the rent was less expensive, and the second, third and fourth issues he mentioned were parking. He said all the other commercial real estate firms had their own parking, and now everyone at his firm parks in the same lot, which is really convenient. He said it’s a lot easier to zip in and out of a parking lot on State Street than a parking deck downtown. What makes Perkins different from other business owners who choose to relocate their businesses is that he is mayor and has been on the City Council for all but two of the last 19 years. So Perkins is largely responsible for many of the policies that make downtown a less desirable location for a business to operate. Parking is a huge issue and downtown it is
expensive. There is very little free parking in downtown Greensboro. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The city could pull up the meters tomorrow and do away with paid on-street parking. Time restrictions could still be made, if the city wanted, or the city could try allowing people to park where they wanted. Another possibility, the city parking decks are paid for, so the parking decks are essentially just moneymakers for city government. You might say it’s another tax on people who live, work and play downtown. What if the parking decks were free, or the top two floors of every deck were free, or one of the parking decks was free? What if the City Council decided to provide some free parking for people downtown? Would that help downtown businesses? The 200 block of East Market Street is lined with metered parking spaces on both sides. Many times during the middle of the day there isn’t a single car parked in that long block. What if the city made blocks like that free, unrestricted parking. Might that help businesses downtown? It’s hard to see how it could hurt, and the city wouldn’t be (Continued on page 29)
Ordinance Briefing Leads to Confusion by alex jakubsen Staff Writer
The Greensboro City Council’s Entertainment Facility Use Ordinance Review Committee looking at a nightclub ordinance is further away from presenting one than they were before their Thursday, Dec. 13 meeting, according to committee chair Councilmember Zack Matheny. The committee, which includes Councilmembers Marikay Abuzuaiter and Jim Kee, heard representatives from the Greensboro Police Department and the Planning and Community Development Department respond to the questions raised by councilmembers, club owners and others at a previous meeting on Nov. 29. The ordinance, if passed, would become part of the zoning code, and sets minimum security requirements for certain types of entertainment facilities in order for them to keep their privilege licenses. Most dance clubs and clubs providing live entertainment and operating after 9 p.m. with occupancy of 150 or more and strip clubs regardless of occupancy would have to comply. Even clubs that cater to those younger than 21 would have to comply. “I will tell you today I’ve got some concerns greater than I had before. I think we are farther away than I probably
realized,” Matheny said at the end of the Dec. 13 meeting. Matheny said that the city would continue to have crime problems, but that he did not want to pass legislation so “reactive” that would be harmful to everyone. Abuzuaiter said she still had questions about the proposed ordinance she had hoped to get answered. “I think it’s really, really complicated,” she said. Police Attorney Jim Clark discussed a list of questions and answers that staff had assembled. One of the questions was why some facilities, including Club Fifth Season and the Elk Lodge, had been dropped from an earlier list of places governed by the ordinance. Clark said that when the ordinance was refined, it became apparent that some facilities effected were not the kind of facilities that they had in mind. “The answer to that is that when the Entertainment Facility Ordinance was first drafted, it was drafted with the idea of a particular category of business uses or zoning uses in mind,” said Clark. The question and answer document says, “The Fifth Seasons also differs from a typical nightclub in that it is an accessory use to the hotel.” (Continued on page 30)
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