Parking at the Promenade leaving you frustrated? One Bluffton business owner has a card for that

Ted Huffman, owner of Bluffton BBQ in the Calhoun Street Promenade, says customer complaints about a lack of nearby parking have become so frequent that he had to do something about it.

Instead of simply lending a sympathetic ear, Huffman now hands grumbling customers a small white card.

“Parking Problem in Bluffton?” the card reads. “Please help the businesses of Old Town and voice your concerns about parking. Together we can make a difference!”

On the card, customers will also find the names and email addresses of Mayor Lisa Sulka and Town Council members.

“It’s daily, getting worse and worse,” Huffman said.

A short distance away, Jon Rinaldi, co-owner of Calhoun’s, said the lack of parking spaces continues to affect his business and that he’s had customers tell him if they can’t find a parking spot when they drive around for a few minutes, they go somewhere else.

“People don’t want to walk,” he said.

The Promenade is home to a number of busy restaurants, all of which require parking for their employees in addition to their customers.

Calhoun’s alone has 15 employees and can seat up to 80 people.

Rinaldi said the parking issues at the Promenade are so bad that they often cause his employees to arrive late to work as they circle the block for open spaces, and that residents of the Promenade often can’t find parking close enough to their homes to easily carry in their groceries.

Farther down Calhoun Street at The Store, though, business owner Babbie Guscio said she hasn’t really experienced a problem with parking and that there’s usually plenty of spaces where she’s located.

She said when people go to big cities like Charleston and Savannah, they have to look for parking there all the same because that’s where all the action is.

“I just think it’s a matter of not wanting to walk,” she said. “It’s just hard to park where everyone wants to be.”

The only time Guscio said she might ever have issues is during the Bluffton Farmer’s Market on Thursdays, but the shuttle that took drivers from the market to the U.S. Post Office on Thurmond Way solved most of that problem. She said there should be more sidewalks and bicycle lanes for those who would like to walk or ride their bike, which are much healthier options.

“I feel flattered, in a way, that people want to be here,” she said.

Rinaldi said the parking issue was more of a Promenade issue than for the rest of Old Town, and that the main issue stemmed from putting so many large businesses on top of each other in such a small location with little parking.

“You know, there’s more heavy amount of businesses up here with more customers and employees,” he said. “Also more residents. They have their own parking.”

Rinaldi said he thinks a parking garage where businesses could validate their customers’ parking would be better than the current system.

Huffman says a 3-acre piece of undeveloped land next to the Promenade ought to be converted into a parking lot that could be buffeted by vegetation so it wouldn’t be visible to the street, thereby maintaining the Old Town look.

In May 2016, he told The Island Packet that this plan to alleviate parking congestion — created by him and Frank Coburn, a property owner, and Wayne McDonald, a real estate agent — wasn’t properly considered by town leaders. The plan called for the town to purchase the land, owned by Coburn, for roughly $2.8 million.

The Town of Bluffton, however, has other ideas.

It recently began work on the May River Road streetscape improvement project, which will add 30 new spaces. And last year purchased a nearly $1 million 1.5 acre plot that would add an additional 65 spots.

This story was originally published February 10, 2017 at 4:40 PM with the headline "Parking at the Promenade leaving you frustrated? One Bluffton business owner has a card for that."