Broken Arrow's Rose District To Offer More Parking

There will soon be more places to park for people in Broken Arrow’s Rose District.

The new spaces are thanks to an agreement with a nearby church.

A sign at the entrance to the First United Methodist Church parking lot is about to be obsolete. Pastor Larry Varvel said it will soon be free for the public to use.

"This is kind of our overflow lot behind me, so it's usually only filled up on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, so we think the rest of the week it'll be fine to let folks use it who are visiting the rose district," said Pastor Varvel.

Broken Arrow city councilors gave the approval to sign a 15-year, $150,000 lease with the church, and also to spend over $500,000 to improve the lot.

"Additional paving of new parking spaces and redoing much of our parking, new lighting, some new landscaping," said Varvel.

The addition of 110 new parking spaces to the growing Rose District is good news for nearby businesses.

"We have a limited amount of spaces, so if you have a large group that you want to come over here and have a group of people having breakfast there is nowhere to park so we're really excited about it," said Toast McKinney’s manager, Jaime Harper.

Harper said more parking spots could be better for business.

"There has been people that said I was gonna stop by but there was nowhere to park ... if there isn't a convenient place to park, you'll just go find a place that has convenient parking," Harper said.

Pastor Larry Varvel said the public has used the lot before, but the deal with the city will make sure people have a place to park for years to come.

"For years, ya know, the marching bands line up in our parking lot, and the floats in our parades line up in our parking lot and people come here and park anyway so we'll just make it a little bit more official," said Varvel.

The city said the timeline for the improvements is still being worked out.