Answer Man: return downtown Asheville COVID pick-up zones to metered parking spots?

ASHEVILLE - Today's burning question is about "curbside pick-up zones" that have set down roots in places that downtown parking once occupied.

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Question: “I've been curious about something for a while. I moved to Asheville in late fall 2021 and live near downtown. I wonder why there are so many 10-minute parking/pick-up spots on Biltmore Ave., Lexington Ave., etc.? Is this a holdover from restaurants moving to more takeout during the worst of the pandemic or driven by increasing traffic from Uber eats, Doordash and other delivery services? I seldom see cars parked in these spots and wish they were just regular metered spots that I could use.”

Answer: Those are absolutely pandemic holdovers. Back in the spring of 2020, with the economy crashing, the city implemented "AVL Shares Space," giving restaurants, bars and cafes the right to expand onto adjacent sidewalks and into parking spaces. The program also provided for the "curbside pick-up zones," that the reader is eying − one of which I regularly walk by in front of Jerusalem Garden Cafe on Patton Avenue.

In the fall of 2020, AVL Shares Space got extended through Jan. 3, 2021 , "to continue providing businesses and organizations with opportunities to expand outdoors during COVID-19," according to a Sept. 28, 2020, city announcement.

In the spring of 2021, the program got extended again until Jan. 3. City Manager Debra Campbell continued to say the program wasn't permanent but that some fees to use public spaces that had been waived during the pandemic had been reintroduced, according to Nov. 9, 2021, City Council minutes.

Now, a year after the official end of the pandemic, the program is feeling pretty permanent.

Responding to my questions, city spokesperson Kim Miller said after being rolled out to facilitate "customer access, rideshare and curbside pickup" most businesses tell municipal staff they want to keep the pick-up zones. They apparently also want to keep serving customers at tables in former parking spaces, as evidenced by the now permanent "parklets" in front of bars and restaurants like Tupelo Honey on College Street (that I also walk by).

With the pick-up zones, Miller said "in some cases where they were not being utilized for their intended purpose, or the feedback from nearby businesses was that the space(s) should be returned to metered parking, the curbside spaces have been removed."

For bonus points, I asked for examples of reclaimed parking spots. Miller went to hunt them down, but I hadn't heard back by late afternoon May 15.

For people like the reader who want the pick-up zones reverted to parking − or for those who want to keep them, Miller said they can send feedback to parking@ashevillenc.gov . Meanwhile, on the way home I might go stop for a beer in a former parking spot.

More: Asheville drivers quietly got many more places to park near downtown. Where are they?

Downtown bar closes, owner cites COVID-19 pandemic, drinking habit changes

Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He's written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times .

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Answer Man: return downtown Asheville COVID pick-up zones to metered parking spots?