Falls Church officials hope a new lot resurfacing project currently underway will help visitors and patrons of area businesses better locate parking in the busy downtown area of the Little City.

Public spaces located behind businesses in the 100 block of West Broad Street and Park Avenue are being repaved today and will be re-striped tomorrow in an effort to help distinguish between public and private parking in the lot.

Council member Letty Hardi says the project was one of the key recommendations from the City’s parking working group. “I’m personally thrilled to see it happen,” she told the News-Press.

In addition to the resurfacing and re-striping, Hardi says the next step will be to paint the City’s public spaces bright green along with lettering to denote the spaces’ two-hour limit.

Confusion over which spots are public and which belong to area businesses has resulted in many towed vehicles over the years, since the public spots share the same surface lot with retail-owned spaces. Hardi says the new colored blocks should make it easier for visitors to find the public spaces and should be completed sometime in the next few weeks based on paint availability.

Another benefit of the lot makeover, the City will gain four public spaces — three in the area nearest the City’s new downtown park and one in the northwest corner of the lot — due to a more efficient layout.

Additional improvements include directional arrows painted to help manage the flow of traffic plus accessible spaces will be moved for better and safer access, Hardi says.

Weather permitting, the lot is scheduled to reopen to the public this Wednesday.