HUTTO, Texas — The City of Hutto continues to be one of the fastest growing cities in Texas, and with an increasing population, it’s becoming more of a headache to park downtown.
For years, the city and local business owners downtown have been struggling with only 140 parking spaces, which has prompted city leaders to try and work out new solutions to tackle the problem.
“If we’re wanting a vibrant downtown and we’re wanting to have a nice spot for 45,000 people to call home, then I think parking is the one thing that is stopping downtown from growing,” said Hutto mayor Mike Snyder.
Snyder said many restaurants have wanted to move into vacant storefronts in Downtown Hutto, but the one concern holding them back is not having enough parking for customers.
“They love Hutto, they love the hippo, they love the story and they want to be here, but they need 60 or 70 parking spots because of the business that they do,” Snyder said.
With an event center downtown, Snyder says it can also negatively impact other local businesses because there’s nowhere to park when they have an event.
Judi Smith, the owner of Hall of Fame which has called Downtown Hutto its home for 14 years, loves the area but agrees something has to change when it comes to parking.
“People will come in and say, ‘I had to park so far away, I’ve got 30 minutes left for lunch, how quick can you get my food out?'” Smith said. “It’s not a good experience for people.”
Smith also says since the spaces fill up so quick, whatever business gets the most customers during a certain time of day may end up getting all the parking spots. Then they’ll have to wait for the next turnover or lunch/dinner rush to end to get more customers at their business.
“All of us down here are kind of like, ‘Whatever we need to do to make it happen, let’s make it happen,'” Smith said.
Snyder says the city council has several ideas on the table, like putting in a paid parking garage on city land across from Hall of Fame, or lowering time limits for parking spots.
Whether these additional parking spaces gets paid for through property tax dollars or by paid hourly parking at the garage, Snyder says it’s essential that the city does something about it.
“We have to address the parking,” Snyder said. “We’re all going to pay, it’s just do you pay with higher prices at the businesses? Do you personally pay when you go and use it, or do you pay it when you pay your mortgage every month?”
If the city were to create a parking garage, Snyder said the building’s design would blend in with all the buildings, similar to ones that have been created in Savannah, Georgia or Columbia, South Carolina.
Thursday evening, council members discussed some of these options at a work session, but no specific decisions have been made as of yet. Moving forward, Snyder says the city will have more work sessions and meetings with local businesses and developers to figure out how to proceed.
Boomtown is KVUE’s series covering the explosive growth in Central Texas. For more Boomtown stories, head to KVUE.com/Boomtown.