CHINA GROVE — China Grove officials discussed downtown overnight parking during the town council meeting last week, weighing possible changes to town policy. 

“We don’t have a huge problem, but we do have some overnight parking downtown,” Mayor Rodney Phillips said as he kickstarted the conversation. “This causes some downtown business owners a little bit of an inconvenience. Most towns have an ordinance against that. We don’t. As we look over the next three or four months, we may adopt an ordinance to prohibit that.”

Phillips said that such action would warrant collaboration with downtown business owners and residents, and making sure China Grove has “things in place” so that parking options are not being denied without alternatives for people that need them.

“This conversation came about because of what we are talking about doing downtown with our streetscapes,” Council member Lee Withers said. 

Withers was having breakfast with a downtown business owner and was surprised to see the place relatively empty based on how many cars were parked downtown. He asked the business owner where everyone was. 

Withers said that the business owner replied: “This is every morning from about 7:30, 8 o’clock. There are cars lined all in front of our business and my true patrons can’t come here.”

The solution could be more complex than simply passing an prohibitive ordinance. 

“I would not want to cause immediate unwanted stress or trouble for people who are living downtown by just passing something,” Withers said. “I think it is a bigger conversation that we need to have.”

Withers see a promising opportunity with some recent property acquisitions and infrastructure improvements. 

“The town now has, thank goodness, we have paved Tatum (Street) which in turn paved and cleaned up a parking lot that the town has there beside Tatum,” Withers said. “We now own the old bank building and that parking lot. We got to figure that parking lot out.

“Then, downtown, we are getting ready to street scape. The last thing we want to do is beautify downtown and then, in turn, have cars continue to park. The bigger discussion I want us to have is to think about what that looks like, three months, three years down the road and we go ahead and start having those conversations proactively with our local business owners to make sure we do what is right by them.”

Withers indicated that he would support passing a future ordinance to not have downtown overnight parking, if a solution could be found that worked for all the stakeholders. 

“We currently have two hour parking during the day, but after (business hours) people can park there all night long with no restriction,” he said. “I just think we need to look at that and what that looks like as we try to reimagine what our downtown looks like.”

Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Starnes spoke up about balancing growth with convenience. 

“Concern comes in with overnight parking that they are staying there into the morning when these businesses need that parking area,” Starnes said. “We recognize that through the growth of the town we are not always going to be able to park right in front of the business and go in. We are not trying to implement and put duress onto folks that are using it because we do have space in other areas that would free up those spaces.”

Ultimately, no action was taken during the meeting.