Overview:
• A parking lot in front of the county courthouse was closed in October 2024 to make way for the Crown Event Center.
• That created a parking crunch around the Cumberland County Courthouse, which leads to vehicles being towed from the lot behind the courthouse..
• The Event Center is now canceled, and the former parking lot has become an unsightly field of mud in downtown Fayetteville.
As Cumberland County employees work to convert a former parking lot in front of the county courthouse into a temporary greenspace, the county commissioners are looking for ways to replace the 204 parking spaces that used to be there.
At the same time, commissioners are still seeking to get the property developed into something other than a greenspace or parking lot in the heart of downtown Fayetteville.
“In three to six months, we’ll have an economic development plan for that piece of property, pending the other actions that are supposed to happen on that site,” commissioners Chair Kirk deViere said during a commissioners meeting on Thursday when the future of the former parking lot was discussed. He did not elaborate further.
The discussion comes amid ongoing pressure on visitors seeking free parking spaces at or near the courthouse. Further, jurors arriving for jury duty have had difficulties parking, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons has said.
Downtown Fayetteville has paid parking on the street, in lots, and in a deck within a few blocks of the courthouse. Some is provided by the city, some by private parking lot owners.
Before it closed, the courthouse’s front parking lot was often overfilled on weekday mornings as people parked in the travel lanes and other areas. The lot was shut down in October 2024 to make way for the Crown Event Center performance and events space. Parking was free in this lot.
The county commissioners in June 2025 canceled the Event Center, which also ended plans to build an 1,100-space, $33 million parking deck behind the courthouse.
Since then, the former front parking lot has since remained an eyesore surrounded by construction fencing. It’s a block away from the Fayetteville Market House and near downtown events and festivals.
From Mud to Grass, and Maybe Gravel
County employees recently seeded grass in the field of mud in front of the courthouse, Amanda Lee, the county’s general manager for natural resources, told commissioners on Thursday. This was part of the staff’s effort to fulfill the commissioners’ direction to convert the field into a temporary greenspace. She expects the field to be filled with grass in three to six months.
Meanwhile, most of the courthouse’s rear parking lot is reserved for courthouse employees, jurors, and drivers with handicaps. Members of the public seeking free parking are directed to park in two county-operated locations.
One is a paved parking area that spans two private parcels across Person Street from the courthouse. The county leases them from a church and from former County Commissioner Jimmy Keefe and his sister, former Fayetteville City Council Member Kathy Keefe Jensen. (Keefe told CityView that prior to 2025, he and Jensen allowed the general public to park in their portion of that parking area without charge to the county.)
The other location is a gravel parking lot the county owns that is about a five-minute walk from the courthouse.
Drivers who park in reserved areas of the courthouse’s rear parking lot without a permit, or who park outside of designated parking spaces, run the risk of their cars being towed.
There is no requirement in the city’s ordinances for the county to provide any parking, Lee told the commissioners.
“We understand that there’s not parking requirements, but when we have individuals trying— employees as well as citizens trying to come to our courthouse—we have an absence of parking,” deViere said. “So, when those 200 spots were ripped up and although we had additional parking, it didn’t meet the need.
“And so I think it’s the intent of this board, is that we either identify some additional parking, or we use the space that we have in a creative way, to get some additional parking, even if it’s for employees only.”
If the county cannot convert the mud field back into parking, deViere said, “we get temporary greenspace, as we directed 90 days ago. And we get some fencing down, and we get a space that doesn’t look like it does now, seeing how this project was terminated in June of last year.”
DeViere and Commissioner Pavan Patel asked whether the county could put gravel on the site to bring back parking spaces. Those spaces could be reserved for county employees, deViere said, and free up spaces in the rear parking lot for the general public.
If parking spaces are returned to the property, Lee said, it would have to comply with city ordinances. “It would have to be an improved parking area, with pavement, and meet landscaping requirements,” she said.
DeViere told County Manager Clarence Grier to talk to Fayetteville City Manager Doug Hewett about options and whether the county can get an exemption from the paving requirement so that gravel could be used.
Commissioners Veronica Jones and Henry Tyson said there may be materials other than gravel and pavement that could be used—Tyson said some people have used recycled tires to create parking surfaces—and told Lee to look into options.
If the county can’t make arrangements with the city to provide parking on that site, it will continue to be converted to greenspace, Grier said.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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