American flags fluttered in the wind as three friends from the Waynesfield area enjoyed frozen custard on the concrete retaining wall in front of the Logan County Courthouse on a warm Saturday evening.
Friends Dave Shephard, Kraig Buffenbarger and Alan Van Horn of Waynesfield relax on the concrete retaining wall of the Logan County Courthouse lawn on Saturday evening. While the regular visitors to downtown don’t view parking as a major issue for Bellefontaine, they said it could be if development continues as it has been in recent years. (EXAMINER PHOTO | REUBEN MEES)
“It’s a pretty nifty downtown,” Dave Shephard said, noting that he and his friends, Kraig Buffenbarger and Alan Van Horn, regularly come to town to dine at the selection of local restaurants. “It’s really started to grow.”
The friends regularly visit other area cities, including Wapakoneta and Lima, and say Bellefontaine has a leg up in both ambience and — contrary to some opinion — availability of parking.
“The parking here is great, especially compared to Wapak,” Shephard said. “We’ve always got along fine parking here, but if it continues (growing) like this, it could get tougher.”
Although they agreed that the spot they stopped for their sweet treat could be improved with some well-placed benches and possibly bicycle racks, they thought sacrificing the streetscape for parking spots would not be a good move.
New bicycle racks, like this one at the corner of Main Street and Columbus Avenue, are being installed to improve the streetscape throughout downtown this week.
“If you want to keep the historic feel, you can’t make this parking,” Buffenbarger said, noting the prominent features of the courthouse make the experience of sidewalk dining appealing.
While city administrators had considered cutting seven diagonal parking spots alongside the city’s pineapple-topped friendship fountain, that idea has been abandoned.
The need to consider long-term planning for the redevelopment of downtown continues, however.
Jason Duff, the developer who originally proposed the idea for the parking spots, said he is no longer suggesting that as an option, but agrees with the quick assessment levied by the visitors from Auglaize County.
“This is now a place that people will travel 45 minutes to eat; so we need to be thinking about the future,” he said.
“The courthouse is verybeautiful, but we really need to build energy on that side of the street. I wish the administration would make that a priority.
Let’s make our parks, our sidewalks and our greenspace as beautiful as possible.”
One of Duff’s concerns in pitching parking in front of the courthouse was that the historic Opera Block, which is the large building that sits on the southeast corner of Main Street and Court Avenue, is in need of serious repair. While there could be interest in the building, Duff said developers he has spoken with are concerned by the lack of parking — or at least the perception that there is a lack of parking.
An Examiner analysis of aerial views of downtown Bellefontaine, from images taken approximately three years ago, indicate that there are more than 1,600 parking spaces throughout downtown or within one block of the six city blocks bounded by Auburn Avenue, Madriver Street, Sandusky Avenue and Detroit Street.
Read complete story in Tuesday’s Examiner.
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