The county owns the acre sized parking lot adjacent to the proposed parking lot. This area is large enough and in a location where transforming it into a parking garage would be beneficial for the county as well as the historic district and downtown area.

All of the trees, some of which are close to 200 years old will be cut down for the parking lot. Large, paved parking lots create heat islands. Having two right next to each other with no trees will only intensify this effect, making the Historic District hotter and less desirable to explore.

Small historic districts like Richmond, TX are enhanced and beloved because of small Mom & Pop businesses and their patrons they attract to the area. With this entire block erased by a parking lot, there will be fewer small business locations for business owners to occupy, potentially slowing down or stopping economic growth.

Many people want to call downtown Richmond their home and many businesses want to set up shop. The historic district is already low on property inventory and this will only exacerbate the problem. Removing land from productive use will put a strain on the overburdened taxpayers. Removing the land from the City's tax role will force taxpayers to make up the difference.

Three historic homes sit on the proposed site and are in danger of being demolished, thanks to the county. To make room for the parking lot, the county will remove the homes or pave around them.

Paved parking surfaces create enormous amounts of stormwater runoff. With aging infrastructure in Richmond’s historic district, it is already challenging to mitigate water runoff from existing properties. New, paved surfaces require drainage mitigation that is expensive to implement and often comes in the form of open-air ponds or buried detention. Better alternatives exist: go vertical with the parking lot the County already owns. No new surfaces, no new runoff, no expensive mitigation.