Town of Granite Falls and NCDOT work together to save crucial parking downtown

GRANITE FALLS, NC (March 22, 2019) — Last month, the NCDOT released proposed plans to make improvements to U.S. 321 ALT from Pinewood Road to Duke Street in Granite Falls. In the proposed plans, all parking spaces on South Main Street from Falls Avenue to Commerce Street where going to be eliminated (approx. 25 spaces). This would have had a detrimental effect on business and the town.

In the past few weeks, the Town of Granite Falls and the NCDOT have worked together to address concerns about the loss of downtown parking on South Main Street in the recent proposed plan.

Here is a statement from Granite Falls Town Manager Jerry Church…

“Based on direction from the Town Council, Town Staff has been working vigilantly with NCDOT Division 11 personnel to address concerns over the possible elimination of the diagonal parking on South Main Street as shown in the initial design of NCDOT project U-6034 (321A). I am pleased to inform you that the NCDOT has listened to these concerns and has been working diligently on an alternative design that will maintain most, if not all of the existing diagonal parking spaces on South Main Street. The NCDOT has not published any revised plans because they still have to finish reviewing all public comments that were submitted by last Friday 3/15/19. Please keep in mind that the design changes to accommodate existing parking won’t be finalized and published until NCDOT completes their review of all public comments and produces a revised design plan for the project.

The Town would like to thank each of you that participated in the Public meeting for this project and for your comments. We also want to thank the NCDOT Division 11 staff for listening to these concerns and for developing an alternative design that maintains parking for the businesses on South Main. There may be other tweaks to the plan design forthcoming but none of which are as important as this one to the business owners in downtown Granite Falls.”

For more information about this project click here.

If you would like to thank the Town of Granite Falls, call 828.396.3131

If you would like to thank the staff at the NCDOT Division 11 Office click here

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