Council ponders changes to or ending of weekend Downtown walking mall

A week after being approached at its August 10th meeting by two East Main Street business people, Kelly Walker (The Studio: A Place for Learning) and Inna Kolesnik (Nicolle’s Jewelry Designs), urging an end to the weekend closing of East Main Street to vehicular traffic, the Front Royal Town Council and staff discussed possible adjustments or a potential end to the Historic Downtown weekend walking mall concept.

Walker and Kolesnik said that the while the street closures instituted with Governor’s Coronavirus Pandemic Emergency Management Phase 2 business reopening guidelines in early June may have been a boon to some businesses, particularly restaurants before indoor seating was allowed, for others the loss of nearby Main Street customer parking access has been counterproductive. Advocates of the closure note that parking remains available within a short block of Main Street in the Village Commons/Gazebo parking lot, to the north in the Peyton Street Town parking lot with several alleyways access to East Main, and south on Jackson Street. However, opponents counter that, that parking fills up much quicker with the 48 or so lost parking spaces along East Main and Chester Streets.

A March shot of an empty E. Main St., not because of street closures, but of the State Emergency Management response to the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. And while the governor has been criticized by some for business restrictions, so far Virginia has stayed off the national ‘hotspot’ list. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini. Video by Mark Williams.

It was noted that now into Phase 3 of the Governor’s pandemic reopening guidelines, restaurants may now have 50% indoor seating with social distancing. So, council and staff wondered if the outdoor seating implemented for restaurants without built-in outdoor seating areas was still necessary.

Included in the Monday, August 17 work session agenda packet was a petition with 20 signatures seeking “to reverse the Town Council Decision on Weekend Closing Part of East Main Street”. A post-work session examination of the petition indicated seven East Main or Chester Street businesses represented by those signatures, as well as eight East Main or Chester Street residents, two who also signed as business owners, as well as one former East Main resident and one former East Main business owner who has relocated but still owns property there.

Councilwoman Lori Athey Cockrell observed, “A lot of people signed it, a lot didn’t.” And Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick commented that there have been dueling petitions on the issue, both for continuing the walking mall concept and against it.

And while it seems apparent there were more directly impacted businesses and residents whose signatures were absent from the petition included in the agenda packet than on it, work session discussion indicated concern for those claiming a negative impact due to lost parking and vehicular traffic through the heart of Front Royal’s Downtown Business District.

The block of Chester St. opened back up to parking and traffic to the Village Commons parking lot entrance last weekend.

However, one slight change in the street closures implemented last weekend may have pointed a way forward. That change was the opening of Chester Street from Laura Virginia Hale Drive in front of the Virginia Beer Museum south to East Main Street. That reopening may have solved the problem for two, if not three of the businesses represented in the petition: Mr. John’ Barber Shop, the New Creations Hair Salon, and Main Street Pawn. That one-block change opened up Chester Street parking in front of the barbershop and hair salon, as well as to residences above the pawnshop and brought street parking closer to the pawn shop’s entrance at the Main-Chester Street intersection.

And such compromises were part of the discussion Monday evening.

Councilman Garry Gillespie suggested continuing the closures “once or twice a month” in the future. Vice-Mayor Bill Sealock suggested partial closings of East Main, leaving vehicular access and parking open to some areas and businesses, including Town Hall’s Saturday morning drive-thru utility payment window on the west end of East Main Street. Sealock suggested some creative planning, including at least a weekend reversal from southbound to northbound of the one-way direction of Church Street’s alley-sized dead end into East Main a few doors east of Royal Cinemas.

The one-way Church St. intersection with E. Main that Vice-Mayor Tewalt suggested as a possible weekend accessway to a re-opened western portion of E. Main.

Council gave Interim Town Manager Tederick authority to move forward with the weekend street closures on June 8, a week after a successful three-day Memorial Day weekend experiment with the idea.

“In general the feedback we’ve received has been very positive from citizens. Citizens seem to like the idea of walking in the open air on Main Street, stopping at the various places on their walk.

Some businesses really enjoy Main Street being closed,” Tederick told council, observing of weather challenges, “We are in the hottest period of the year this summer, so the foot traffic might be less than normal.”

As a weekend photographer of the downtown walking mall phenomena and corresponding events, this reporter will observe wild variations in the number of people walking downtown on a given weekend day. And as Tederick observed, it appears related to weather variables. When the extreme heat of this summer – mid, upper 90’s into the lower 100’s – has broken without rain, the foot traffic has steadily appeared to increase, including a growing number of what appears and are sometimes verified to be visitors from out of the county.

Eliminating town-implemented weekend outdoor seating would hurt those restaurants without built-in outdoor seating, like Royal Spice above; but not others like Soul Mtn. below, with an established outdoor section.

Tederick alerted council to an upcoming event planned for downtown during the walking mall closures. Cockrell referenced a “Greatest Show” that Tederick said he believed was scheduled for the coming weekend. “So, it’s not something I’d want to do immediately,” he said of an abrupt closure, adding, “But I do think it’s something we have to think about how we want to do – if you want to reopen it (to weekend traffic) or just keep it the way it is.”

See that discussion as well as that surrounding hoped for State “Smart Scale” grant funding for major South Street improvements, including pedestrian safety additions; a report on United Way activities in the community; and adjournment to Closed Session to discuss the EDA litigation and potential business expansion in the town limits, in this exclusive Royal Examiner video.

What you won’t hear was a scheduled discussion of drafted bylaws surrounding the creation of a unilateral Town-funded, appointed, and overseen IDA (Industrial Development Authority, also known as EDA (Economic Development Authority). The interim town manager noted that absent council member Jacob Meza who was on the road had requested to be contacted for remote phone participation in that discussion. After a call got only Meza’s answering machine, a consensus was reached to postpone the conversation to a future work session when Meza would be available to participate because of his high interest in the independent EDA project.

Tederick also called Town Attorney Doug Napier, whom he observed was self-quarantining because he wasn’t feeling well. And while Napier was contacted, it was just briefly with the decision to delay the IDA/EDA bylaw discussion.