Can’t find parking in Old Town Bluffton? Leaders say this might help

How do you ease the parking crunch in Bluffton’s Old Town district without filling the historic district with unsightly garages or large public lots?

That’s a challenge town leaders have long grappled with and one that has officials considering regulatory changes that could require new businesses and restaurants to provide more off-street parking spaces.

“It does look like we are super lenient” in terms of how many spaces town code mandates developers include in projects, Mayor Lisa Sulka said earlier this week.

Town Councilman Fred Hamilton said everyone is aware there is a problem, but it’s just a matter of coming up with effective solutions.

“We know better, so now we have to start doing better,” he said.

Bluffton leaders say the town has put its money where its mouth is with the recent purchase of parcels of land around the historic district where parking spaces are being added.

“We have to demand that the developers and restaurant owners join in” the effort to alleviate parking problems, Hamilton said.

Current town code requires restaurants in the historic district to provide four parking spaces for every 1,000 square feet of building space.

Parking issues are especially evident along streets “where you have business after business” line up one after another relying on limited on-street parking, Councilman Larry Toomer said earlier this week.

The problem is compounded by a quirk in the town code that allows business owners to count on-street spaces in front of their establishment toward their minimum parking space requirement.

S.C. Rep. Bill Herbkersman, the Promenade’s developer, said Thursday he isn’t expressly opposed to increasing parking requirements, but Old Town business owners should be involved in the decision-making process.

“There has to be some give and take,” he said. “There is a lot of room for discussion on the issue.”

Bluffton developer Thomas Viljac said evaluating the town’s parking regulations is a worthwhile effort but added that government and businesses leaders “have to collectively make decisions so we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Because there is so little developable space remaining in Old Town, requiring more land to be devoted to parking could be a “barrier to entry” for business looking to open in the historic district.

In addition to the possibility of upping parking requirements for developers, the town could create incentives to encourage shared parking agreements, Bluffton’s planning and development manager Kevin Icard said.

“If you are business, you could potentially share parking with one of the churches in the Old Town area,” he said.

The town has such an arrangement with Cornerstone Church on Calhoun Street.

“The goal is to have parking, obviously,” Icard said. “But we don’t want … a sea of parking lots.”

Herbekersman said shared parking agreements are “fabulous because they help utilize the assets we already have.”

Another possible change to town regulations could require businesses and restaurants to provide a certain number of parking spaces for their employees.

The city of Beaufort’s code calls for one dedicated parking space for every two restaurant employees, town documents show.

“I do like the idea of considering some kind (of parking area) for employees,” Sulka said. “I think that’s interesting.”

Town manager Marc Orlando said earlier this week that staff “will work with architects and restaurateurs” to get their input on potential code changes.

A draft of those changes is expected to be introduced to Bluffton’s Planning Commission next month and to members of the Town Council by August.

If town leaders ultimately opt to change parking regulations, it would not be unprecedented.

Town code was amended in 2015, essentially doubling the number of spaces required for new restaurants and businesses.

This story was originally published June 15, 2017 at 2:19 PM with the headline "Can’t find parking in Old Town Bluffton? Leaders say this might help."