The Fayetteville City Council met for a work session on Monday. Here’s what you need to know about city leaders’ discussions:
Downtown tree replacement
After a social media storm — including a petition and the creation of a Facebook group dedicated to protecting downtown trees — swept through Fayetteville over the weekend, Parks and Recreation Director Michael Gibson clarified that the city will not be, in fact, chopping down healthy trees downtown.
That’s what many assumed from the language in the city’s recommended budget, which allocated $50,000 for “downtown core tree replacement” to remove “many mature trees that are in need of replacement along city streets.”
Gibson acknowledged the wording had “made the community a little nervous,” and he clarified that the funds would not be used to cut down all downtown trees, but to enhance greenspace downtown. Part of this process, he said, may involve removing and replacing any trees that were at the end of their lifespan or unhealthy. He said this was a result of a tree survey the city had done a few years ago, which involved an arborist checking on the health of the trees.
“But just like anything now, everything has a lifespan,” Gibson said. “And we’re doing everything we can to make sure that those trees survive. During the wintertime, we pay attention to them when they’re redoing the brickwork downtown. We add value to it by making sure that they’re getting water. So there’s a process, and we have some quality people making sure that those trees survive.”
Staff said they could revise the budget to clarify the purpose of the tree fund.
The board also addressed:
Festival Park
- Festival Park does not have an official management group to oversee and plan events and activities in the downtown greenspace. Mayor Mitch Colvin believes this a missed opportunity to monetize public event space, describing the venue’s current lack of management as “embarrassing” to Fayetteville.
- A new proposal from Oak View Group — which also manages the Crown Event Center — could see the group managing “all aspects of operations including concert promotion and scheduling, food and beverage service, ticketing, show production” and everyday maintenance at the venue.
- Following some debate over Fayetteville’s readiness to accept such a proposal given the current state of the venue, the council ultimately decided to have the Oak View Group present its proposal at a future meeting, so city officials can ask questions about the proposal.
Downtown parking
- In a consensus vote, the council decided to eliminate paid parking downtown after 5 p.m. on weekdays. The change, should it be formally adopted, would go into effect on July 1, according to the motion that passed at Monday’s meeting.
- The motion was made by Council Member Deno Hondros, and it also included a review of the city’s paid parking process when council returns from its July recess.
- The consensus vote means the item will be placed on the consent agenda for final approval at one of the two regular city council meetings in June. The decision comes after downtown business owners have been saying for months that the paid parking has reduced traffic during key customer visit hours in the early evening.
Budget discussions
- The council continued discussions about the city’s 2024-25 operating budget, but few new revelations resulted. Many council members had unanswered questions, with city management only getting through about half of their list before adjournment.
- The council had previously aimed to vote on the budget at the next council meeting on June 10, but with many question marks remaining, council members voted to continue discussions in another work session. That session will take place at noon on June 12 at City Hall, 433 Hay St.
The next regular Fayetteville City Council meeting is at 6:30 p.m. on June 10 at City Hall, 433 Hay St.
Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608.
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