Study: Brevard Has a Parking Management Problem, Not a Parking Shortage

Brevard's oldest complaint got its most detailed diagnosis yet on Sept. 21, 2026. A consultant told City Council that downtown has no parking shortage overall, but it does have a squeezed Lumberyard core, packed free lots and poor signage. Council sent the study and its five pricing options to the Downtown Master Plan Committee. It also heard two code rewrites, approved a park design that still has no construction money and moved to finance a $3.23M sewer repair.

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• Parking study finds no downtown-wide shortage. Lumberyard on-street parking hit 102% of capacity; the study goes to committee.
• Silverstein Park pavilion design approved, but roughly $400,000 in construction money is still missing.
• Building height overhaul would cap exposed walls on slopes and raise height limits 5 feet; a vote is expected next meeting.
• Parking minimums would be scrapped ahead of a Jan. 1, 2027, state deadline.
• $3.23M sewer rehab heads to a state loan application, with about $500,000 in forgiveness expected.

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1 Big Thing: The Parking Problem Is About Management

The basics: The city issued a request for qualifications, or RFQ, for the study in May 2025, drew nine responses and hired Charlotte-based Benchmark Planning in September 2025. Consultants counted 1,231 downtown spaces and 181 in the Lumberyard. They ran counts during Brevard College homecoming on Oct. 10-11, 2025, and again during summer camp turnover in July 2026.

Why it matters: Parking complaints have dogged Brevard for 40 years. The study opens the door to new time limits, better signage and, eventually, fees.

Where things stand: Downtown peaked on Friday early afternoons at 60-62% occupancy overall and 77-78% on-street. Both figures are below the 85% level planners treat as "full." Still, the Main and Broad core and the free city lots behind and across from City Hall ran near 100%.

The Lumberyard is tighter. It reached 82-84% overall in summer, and its core on-street spaces reached 102%. Meanwhile, the Depot lot sat mostly empty.

"We did not find a downtown-wide parking shortage," said Vaughn Hanson, consultant with Benchmark Planning.

A survey drew more than 800 responses, 93% of them from locals. About 60% said on-street parking is often hard to find. Yet about 60% of visits fit within a two-hour limit, and about 90% fit within four hours.

The study offers five alternatives but names no favorite. Options include:
- Four free hours, then $2 an hour, in lots that are free today
- $3 or $2 hourly rates, or a $5 flat fee, for premium core spaces
- Free 30-minute stops

Current off-street parking brings in about $80,500 a year, and Alternative 1 would add roughly 10%. Hanson leaned toward changing time limits and charging for stays longer than four hours in the free lots. He said the city does not need new parking supply now. He also said a paid on-street "pilot" is impractical because the equipment cost effectively commits the city.

The other side: Every council member approached paid parking warily.

"I'm now more curious about what problem we are actually trying to solve," said Councilmember Loren Wise. He later asked about peer cities and added, "I'm not advocating. Just no pitchforks, please." Hanson answered that Blowing Rock tried paid on-street parking, and it "did not go over very well with the residents."

"I'm sure we'll get a lot of feedback if we start charging fees to park," said Councilmember Pamela Holder, who also pressed on accessible parking and signage.

Councilmember Dean Lytle asked, "What's the problem that paid parking solves that the management recommendations can't solve alone?" Hanson replied that pricing means "acknowledging the fact that this is a scarce commodity and assigning a price to it, if that's the direction the city wants to go."

Mayor Pro Tem Aaron Baker held up a 1986 newspaper that showed candidates promising to fix parking. He called it "more of a management problem than an actual on-the-ground problem." He also asked whether North Carolina allows free parking for residents in paid on-street spaces.

Decisions and stakeholder impacts: Council referred the study to the Downtown Master Plan Committee on a voice vote with no audible opposition. Councilmember Gary Daniel was absent. Hanson noted that state law requires on-street parking revenue to fund the on-street program, though the Revenue Bond Act allows the city to pledge that revenue to off-street facilities. The outcome will matter most to downtown workers, Lumberyard businesses and visitors who rely on the free lots.

What's next: The committee takes up the study. City Manager Wilson Hooper said Daniel, who chairs the committee, was briefed on the results in advance.

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Silverstein Pavilion Is Designed, but Unfunded

Why it matters: The pavilion is the last unfinished piece of the Rosenwald community reinvestment that began around 2019. That effort produced the Mary C. Jenkins Community Center, playground and court upgrades, and stream bank repairs.

Where things stand: The plan calls for a roughly 30-by-40-foot picnic shelter and a 15-by-15-foot building with two restrooms and storage. It also includes parallel parking with an accessible space and dusk-to-dawn lighting.

Construction is estimated at just under $415,000. That figure does not include design, construction administration or furnishings. Private donors paid for the design, and the flood zone constrained where the buildings could go.

"Having a shovel-ready, so to speak, project means that if we find a donor tomorrow, we can execute this project shortly thereafter," said City Manager Wilson Hooper.

The other side: Councilmember Pamela Holder pushed for public money to start the project. "It is in a predominantly minority neighborhood, and those grants are readily and usually easily available," she said. She proposed seeding the project with about $74,000 in surplus Fund 82 money.

Hooper responded that typical public recreation grants are a poor fit for this project. Even with the Fund 82 money, he said, "We would still need to find $400,000 or so more."

Mayor Maureen Kopeloff added that the city cannot compete for the state's PARTF recreation grants because its recreation plan is more than 10 years old.

Decisions and stakeholder impacts: Council approved the design resolution on a voice vote with no audible opposition. Baker cited the privately funded soccer field at the sports complex as a precedent. The Rosenwald community's long-promised amenity now depends on donors and grants.

What's next: Staff will seek donors and grants. Funding will be discussed separately.

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Two Code Rewrites Head Toward Votes

Building height: City rules now measure height "from the highest adjacent grade to the eave of the roof, regardless of roof type or height," said Assistant Planning Director Aaron Bland. On a slope, that lets one side of a building tower far above the limit.

Under the staff proposal, one- and two-story buildings would be regulated by number of stories, with a maximum of 14 feet per story. Taller buildings would face two limits:
- An overall height cap, measured from average finished grade
- A new exposed-wall cap, measured from the lowest adjacent grade — for example, 30 feet in the GR4 district and 35 feet in GR8

To offset the stricter measurement, height limits would rise 5 feet in every district. General residential, for example, would go from 35 to 40 feet.

Bland said the new method would have changed how the city measured a proposed hotel that appears taller from Apple Tree Street. Lytle asked about height limits based on neighborhood character. Bland recommended creating a dedicated zoning district for that purpose. Baker asked for real-world examples when the item returns. The Planning Board recommended approval in August.

Parking minimums: Session Law 2026-39 bars local governments from requiring minimum off-street parking as of Jan. 1, 2027. Staff proposes moving now. The change would collapse the city's three-tier system into two tiers and drop incentives tied to minimums, such as those for shared parking and EV charging. The Planning Board voted unanimously for approval Aug. 25.

Bland called the change "kind of almost retroactive," because owners could now redevelop parking the city once required.

Baker backed treating parking "as a part of the market." Wise warned it "could also act as a double-edged sword" and urged monitoring. Lytle asked about spillover onto nearby streets, and Bland said, "We can regulate our streets for the parking."

What's next: No one from the public spoke at either hearing. The height amendment returns for a vote at the next meeting, and the parking amendment returns at a future meeting.

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Sewer Fix Starts With $3.23M Loan Bid

Why it matters: An asset assessment catalogued 1,900 manholes, 58 miles of gravity sewer line, 15 lift stations and 6.5 miles of force main. It found about $18.43M in needs across six priority projects.

Where things stand: Priority 1 is mostly cured-in-place pipe lining, which repairs pipes from the inside without digging them up, plus manhole work. Assistant City Manager David Todd said staff expects $500,000 in principal forgiveness through a State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan, with a 2% origination fee and zero or low interest on the rest.

Lytle asked whether the forgiveness is guaranteed. "It is not guaranteed, but there is a possibility that they could grant us principal forgiveness on the entire amount as well," Todd said.

Baker recalled a neighborhood overflow that left "literally toilet paper in the street." Wise called the costs staggering. He argued that reducing inflow and infiltration — rain and groundwater leaking into sewer lines — could lower the cost of a new treatment plant. Holder asked about yard flooding raised at a Rosenwald meeting. Hooper said it is a stormwater issue that state grants could address separately.

Decisions and stakeholder impacts: The application passed on a voice vote with no audible opposition. Ratepayers stand to benefit from cheaper financing and fewer overflows.

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Minor Items

• Consent agenda approved: It included a $60,700 police accreditation grant and an SRF application for the Azalea Rhododendron sewer extension, which would serve about 130 homes with failing septic systems.
• Trail names clarified: The northern segment heading into the national forest is officially the Estatoe Trail, distinct from the Acosta Trail.
• Pinnacle Road access: Jimmy Veal again asked for a special meeting on century-old road access he says trail infrastructure now blocks for six properties.
• Fairhaven Meadows: Baker said the 42-unit project is "the first federally supported affordable housing that has been built in Brevard in over a decade."
• Clearing the air: Lytle and Baker addressed friction from the last meeting; Lytle said disagreement "isn't the same as dysfunction."

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Looking Ahead

The Pisgah Forest Town Hall is Sept. 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the rec center. NCDOT will discuss Wilson Road and roundabouts, and there will be an Acosta Trail update. Meet the Mayor is Sept. 24 from 11:30 to 1. Council closed the meeting in a closed session on economic development.