On December 13th, the Denton City Council voted to ban valet parking effective January 2nd, 2017. The only business that currently offers valet parking is Queenie’s Steakhouse on Hickory Street. 

In an interview with The Dentonite, City Council member Kathy Wazny of District 3 elaborated on the reasoning for the ban: “The City of Denton is conducting a parking study in the downtown area.  When that study is complete, it'll be presented to the City Council.  At that time, City Council will consider creating an ordinance regarding valet parking.” 

Wazny continued “It's a solid policy decision to do a study first, and create the ordinance based on the study.” 

Queenie’s valet driver Jake Tooley explained that the company is currently discussing how to adapt to the upcoming ban. He considers it unfortunate, but wasn’t surprised by the council’s decision. 

“Most valet services have a place where you are allowed to be and get customers’ cars. It’s usually by the front door for accessibility for the customers,” Tooley said. “This one, there was kind of this weird line where we were allowed to use [the parking spaces], but the public was allowed to use them as well, so it made the job really hard.”

According to an article from the Denton Record Chronicle, the city has held a ‘temporary agreement’ with Queenie’s since 2013, which allowed the business to use up to two parking spaces for valet services. The system has created issues in the past, as further cited by the DRC. 

“I’ve been valeting cars for five years all over DFW and I’ve never had an account where there’s been this kind of confusion in the way it works,” Tooley added. 

In the meantime, will Queenie’s adjusts to the new ordinance? Wazny explained no decisions have been made by the city council regarding the current need for parking spaces around downtown.

“The need for additional public parking in the downtown area comes up often at City Council, but to date, no plan has been announced," she said. "I'd like to see a concrete plan come forward in 2017.  Downtown is booming and the need for additional public parking is acute."

Header image by Brittany Keaton