When construction got underway earlier this year, many businesses told 2 News they expected customer flow to decrease. But due to the temporary parking spots right outside, some shop owners are seeing more customers than ever before.
"Now we see the additional spots and we see where that can be a positive effect to all the businesses in the area," said Spencer Shea, owner of Homegrown Gastropub.
Knowing that these parking spots wouldn't last forever, they created a petition which now has more than 250 signatures. The petition asks RTC to make Virginia Street a one-way southbound street from California Ave. to Mary Street. Plus they want to keep all the diagonal parking in what would be the northbound lanes.
This is something RTC says is highly unlikely.
“RTC would incur a lot of costs to redesign, reconfigure our construction agreements, and it would cost the taxpayers a lot of money," said RTC Executive Director Lee Gibson.
Any new proposal would also have to be approved by the Reno City Council, as well as the Federal Transit Administration.
“It would also just cause a delay and possible loss of future federal funds," said Gibson.
The proposal isn't supported by every business either, as many of the businesses in south Midtown, that don't have temporary parking spots, may not see any benefits.
“There's a lot of federal funding involved, which again the federal government would have to get involved at that point and have the road tied up for three more years? You won’t see any business here at that point," said owner of Michael and Sons Jewelry David Lorenz.
Still RTC says it will work with businesses try and find some middle ground.
"These guys are my friends, I like these folks, I think we are going to sit down and we'll try to figure out some parking management strategies to get them where they want to be," said Gibson.
You can see the petition by clicking here.
Here is RTC full written response:
Changing designs and construction plan at this stage would create significant impacts to the completion of project:
•        The final design was approved by the Reno Council, the RTC Board, with extensive community input, and the Federal Transit Administration
•        A new project design would be needed with community input
•        Increased financial costs
•        Up to 3 years project delay
•        Additional environmental analysis and NEPA
•        Jeopardize federal funding
•        Create issues for safety and operational movements (backing out into live traffic)
•        Parking was preserved in the final design (net loss 4 spaces)
•        A one-way couplet would also create transit challenges to RTC’s most productive transit route
•        Not everyone is in favor of the current one-way configuration
When construction is completed, the RTC will look at satellite or managed parking areas.
