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County board to discuss parking, other event center projects

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The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners’ Crown Event Center Committee on Monday will review a draft of the Request for Proposal for a construction manager. The committee members also will get updates on event center projects, including how the county will deal with parking.

The subject of parking is the last item on a series of updates staff will present to committee members. The committee consists of Commissioners Glenn Adams and Jimmy Keefe. Commissioner Jeannette Council is the chairwoman. The meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. in Room 564 of the Judge E. Maurice Braswell Cumberland County Courthouse.

Last month, the Board of Commissioners voted to build the new Crown Event Center downtown in the parking lot between the current courthouse and the historic courthouse on Gillespie street.

According to the slide presentation in the meeting agenda, the county will continue a parking study that is underway to determine where visitors to the courthouse can park while there on business.

“The Crown Event Center Committee has considered and discussed parking throughout the site selection process and knows that the selected site for the Crown Event Center would result in a loss of 203 parking spaces from the JEMB (Judge E. Maurice Braswell) Courthouse front parking lot,” the presentation material states.

“The county is aware of and exploring the use of parking alternatives within walking distance from the Crown Event Center site that would more than make up for the lost parking and would be accessible to the citizens conducting business at the courthouse.”

According to the presentation, “The county is performing a detailed parking study to confirm its understanding of the impact of the Crown Event Center site location in terms of displaced parking and analyzing the impact of future center on existing downtown parking capacity.”

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In other business, county staff will provide committee members with a 15-page “Request for Qualifications” draft for a construction manager. 

According to a memo to the committee from Jermaine Walker, director of Engineering and Infrastructure, the Board of Commissioners on Nov. 21 approved “Construction Manager at Risk” as the method for the Crown Event Center project.

“The Construction Manager at Risk is an integral part of the successful delivery of a complete and usable facility from schematic design through beneficial occupancy,” the memo states.

The recommendation from staff is that the committee members accept the draft RFQ so it can come before the full board at its Jan. 3 meeting.

Jason Brady covers Cumberland County government for CityView. He can be reached at jbrady@cityviewnc.com.

Cumberland County, Crown Event Center, parking

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