City of Hutto officials are looking to add parking along downtown East Street and make aesthetic enhancements to the area at the same time.

“Basically we need additional parking downtown,” Mayor Doug Gaul said. “If you go down there at lunch time or most anytime, there’s not enough parking.”

The East renovation project will add 28 public parking spaces to the property on the southeast corner of Pecan and East streets across from the Texan Cafe & Pie Shop. The project will also add street parking to East. The parking is intended to accommodate traffic during the day and help during events held downtown. Hutto Public Information Officer Christina Kane-Gibson said people often have to park at the Gin at the Co-Op site or on the narrow downtown streets.

“Our downtown really is a destination,” Kane-Gibson said. “We make it the heart of the community.”

The project was included in the Capital Improvement Projects plan approved for fiscal year 2015-16. It will use funds approved in the 2009 city bond election, according to city documents.

City documents show the project will go to bid in the winter. Construction will start in February and last approximately six months.

Hutto Development Services Director Helen Ramirez said the additional parking will also help downtown businesses. She said One Eleven East, a downtown event venue, needs additional parking to expand its business.

Aesthetically, the project will also add a 3,500-square-foot public plaza. Though the city does not have specific plans for the plaza yet, ideas include an area with benches, trees or games for the public to use.

“[The plaza] will have multiple features,” Ramirez said. “I think it’s a way for people to gather and sit and talk and congregate.”

The project will also reconstruct the street and sidewalk on East, install streetscaping and treewells, and replace existing streetlights along East between Pecan and Farley streets.

Furthermore, the project will add electrical outlets for food vendors and other features to accommodate the festivals held downtown.

At the July 21 City Council meeting, the council was presented with three options for the project—one that preserved a historic structure at the site and added a smaller version of the plaza; one that added only parking; and the third option, which the city is moving forward with, of adding the plaza and parking but not preserving the historic structure.

Kane-Gibson said the option chosen by council, with the plaza and additional parking, was also presented to downtown business owners, who overwhelmingly favored it.

“They all liked this plan,” she said.

The historic structure will be removed because a tree fell on it, and a historic preservation specialist inspected the building and found there was so much damage to the roof and foundation that it was cost-prohibitive to salvage it.

Gaul said in the future he would like to see further improvements to the public plaza area, such as adding a water feature.

“I’m glad it won’t all be parking and buildings,” Gaul said. “As we develop downtown we have to have some green space as well. You want it to be a place that people enjoy and come to.”