Grant Meeting Draws Crowd, Backlash

About 80 people packed the La Grange City Council Chamber on Tuesday evening to hear a presentation about the $1 million downtown revitalization grant that the city is pursuing.

The project, which is being handled by the La Grange Main Street department, has attracted a lot of attention, especially from county government officials and property owners around the Courthouse square. The initial concept unveiled two weeks ago would have eliminated 37 parking spaces from downtown.

Following some public backlash over that idea, city staff presented a new concept at the presentation Tuesday night. It calls for removing only eight parking spaces to make way for traffic and pedestrian improvements.

Still, the project didn’t sit well with many of the attendees.

Tuesday night, La Grange Main Street Manager Caleb Parks began the discussion with a question he posed to attendees.

“Before we get into it, the question I want you to consider and ponder on a little bit: if you had $1 million to improve downtown La Grange, what would you do with it?” Parks asked. “I don’t need your answer right now, but I want you to think on that a little bit as we go through this. I want you to not be afraid to dream big.

“This is a concept, it’s not final,” Parks added. “This is where we get your input. We use your input to develop the next concept, and we go from there. It will take revisions and lots of gathering of input. But in the end, we want this to be something that y’all can be excited about.”

Parks explained the new layout that features curbing and islands to separate the lanes of one-way around the courthouse. He offered various options for lighting fixtures, park benches and other design options. He asked attendees to write their suggestions down at several informational booths that city staff set up around the room.

City Manager Jack Thompson said the new layout eliminates the parallel parking that was proposed in the first design concept, which was a major source of public opposition. Instead, the concept utilizes angled parking. However, the addition of curbing an islands will still result in the removal of eight parking spaces.

Local attorney Luis Vallejo owns four properties around the Square. He spoke against the project at Tuesday’s meeting.

“I hear what my tenants are talking about,” Vallejo said. “We need more parking, not less.”

Furthermore, Vallejo criticized the city’s Main Street department for having no property owners on its board of directors.

“You don’t have any business owners on your board,” Vallejo said. “You have representatives of some of the businesses, but you don’t have the actual business owners. I would think you would want to hear from them about what’s going to help them succeed.”

Vallejo said he would volunteer to serve on the board.

The Main Street department had conducted a parking survey which showed an average of 64 percent of parking spaces were occupied during regular business hours. However, some folks questioned that assessment.

County Judge Dan Mueller argued that some of the improvements the city wants to make encroaches on property owned by the county.

“We have district court dates two to three times a month, county court two to three times a month, juvenile court, and grand juries,” Mueller said. “Parking is a premium, and you’re wanting to develop this on property not belonging to the city but to the county.”

Mueller went on to call the concept a “mistake.”

“I consider myself friends with your current mayor, Jan Dockery,” Mueller said. “Jan’s got her heart in the right place. She wants to do the right thing. But sometimes in public service, we’re doing things that sometimes are a mistake. And Mayor, I’ll say to you, and I’ll say to Mr. Thompson, and I’ll say this to Caleb: this is a mistake. This plan needs to be put in the trash can. I think you need to look at the fact that this isn’t only just the town of La Grange – 5,000 people – it’s the county seat of 25,000 people.”

The concept includes landscaping improvements around the Square. Downtown business owner Gene Carson remarked on the city’s current landscaping in downtown.

“The city is not taking care of what they have,” Carson said. “You go to every corner, it’s nothing but weeds on the corners overtaking the plants … Why am I, as a taxpayer, to believe when you can’t take care of what little greenscape we have? How are we going to do that? The parking lot over there (on South Washington St.), that flower bed is a train wreck. All of them are a train wreck on the square now. The county property around the courthouse looks beautiful. It’s maintained very well. But the city stuff, it’s atrocious.”

For the most part, those who spoke publicly at the meeting were opposed to the project. However, Thompson and Parks invited everyone to meet with them one-on-one in a break-out session. During that time, several attendees offered positive feedback and suggestions to refine the design.

As Judge Mueller alluded to during his remarks, a conflict remains over which parts of the downtown square belong to the city and which parts belong to the county. Thompson said the city is working to clarify the property ownership question.