Parking for a Friday night at the library or a morning at the courthouse used to mean pulling up along Market Street. Since January 14, 2026, it has meant going around the corner to a side street or a back lot. The next year of road work is built around keeping it that way.
The Day the Two-Hour Signs Came Down
On January 14, NCDOT crews took down the two-hour parking signs on East Market Street between Second and North Seventh streets and replaced them with "No Parking" signs, according to JoCo Report. The state had announced in November that about 70 on-street spaces would go. Its reason was safety. The department counted more than 500 crashes on that downtown stretch over a recent five-year period, more than half of them involving parked vehicles that were struck or sideswiped, with 71 injuries and one traffic death.
The Town had asked for a delay first. In December the Town Council voted unanimously to form a Market Street Task Force Action Committee and to request a 90-day moratorium. Mayor Andy Moore said the extension would allow for public input and collaboration with NCDOT. The signs went up anyway. In early March the Council voted to support NCDOT's design. JoCo Report described that vote as a way to keep a voice in the replacement street layout, since the state would not allow Market Street parking to return.
That vote is what makes this a permanent change rather than a temporary inconvenience. Market Street is U.S. 70 Business, and NCDOT maintains it, not the Town of Smithfield. Since January, every decision about downtown parking has been about the blocks next to Market Street.
Seventy Spaces Out of How Many?
When the removal was announced in November 2025, the Town said downtown would still have more than 500 parking spaces: over 300 in public lots and over 200 on-street spaces on nearby streets. Against that count, roughly 70 spaces is a real share of the supply, though most of downtown's parking still remains. The Downtown Smithfield parking page now gives a much larger figure of more than 1,200 spaces. It also still describes two-hour on-street parking in the core, enforced from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with all-day parking in the off-street public lots. The two totals don't agree, and neither source explains how it counts. The lot-by-lot picture is more useful than either total.
Where the Parking Actually Is Now
In its November statement, the Town named the lots and side streets it expected to carry the load. The Council has since added one more lot to that list.
| Location | Where | What's known |
|---|---|---|
| County lot | South Third Street at Johnston Street | Named public lot |
| Courthouse parking | South Second Street | Named public parking area |
| Library and Land Use Center lot | Between North Third and North Fourth streets | Entered from Third and Fourth; more public spaces since Sept. 23 |
| Lot east of Wells Fargo | Next to the bank, off Market Street | Named public lot |
| First Baptist Church lot | Third Street | Town calls it regularly used for public parking |
| On-street spaces | Front, Second, Third, Fourth, Bridge, Johnston and Church streets | Still available on the side streets |
The sources don't give space counts or fee rules for individual lots. A $2-an-hour, app-based meter was floated in March, but only as a concept, not as a rule that's in effect.
The First Baptist lot shows how the Town has been handling this. At its August 18 meeting, the Council approved a $2,543.75 reimbursement to First Baptist Church to cover one-third of the cost of resurfacing its Third Street lot. The Town's reason was that the lot is regularly used for public parking. Instead of building new parking, the Town is investing in parking that already exists one block off Market Street.
The September Deal Behind the Library
The clearest example came on September 23. The Johnston County Building Industry Association agreed to let Johnston County employees park in its lot at no cost. With employee cars moved there, spaces in the public lot behind the Johnston County Land Use Center and the Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield, between North Third and North Fourth streets, opened up for the public. The Town's announcement said the change took effect immediately and costs nothing.
The association's own lot is not open to the public. The Town's release says it is reserved for county employees and is not a general public parking lot. The gain for the public is in the library lot, which the library notes is shared with the Land Use building and can fill up.
Interim Town Manager Kimberly Pickett, who arranged the deal, said this in the Town's release:
"We may not control what happens on Market Street, but we can continue looking for solutions. This is a great example of three organizations working together to make better use of the parking we already have."
What the Redesign Does to Second and Third Streets
The side-street parking you use today is also what NCDOT plans to rebuild. At the June 2 Town Council meeting, Addison Gainey, Division 4 project development engineer for NCDOT, presented the safety project for Market Street from Front Street to U.S. 301. At the Town's request, it includes several town-owned side streets, as reported by JoCo Report.
Around the Johnston County Courthouse, the proposal would make these changes:
- Second Street becomes one-way southbound from Bridge Street to East Johnston Street, with angled parking on one side, including accessible spaces near the courthouse.
- East Johnston Street becomes one-way eastbound between Second and Third, also with angled parking.
- Third Street becomes one-way northbound from East Johnston to Bridge, with angled parking on one side.
- East Johnston and Second gets a new all-way stop.
Together, those streets would form a loop around the courthouse block, lined with angled spaces. On Market Street itself, the plan calls for 11-foot travel lanes, a raised concrete island between Front and Second to slow traffic entering downtown, a dedicated left-turn lane at Third, and new high-visibility crosswalks with audible pedestrian signals at every signalized intersection. Market Street is being designed for through traffic and people crossing on foot. The angled parking goes on the side streets.
Two pieces are still undecided. The Town owns two aging traffic signals, one at Second and Bridge and one at Third and East Johnston. At Second and Bridge, the options were an all-way stop for about $30,000 or a new signal for about $155,000. At Third and East Johnston, they ranged from about $55,000 for an all-way stop to $340,000 for a completely new signal system. As of the October 6 Council agenda, no choice on the signals had been recorded, and no Betterment Agreement had been approved. That agreement will set out what the Town pays for the side-street work.
The Calendar From Here
In June, NCDOT expected to award a construction contract in December 2026, with work starting soon after and lasting about six to eight months. Resurfacing, signal work, curb ramps and pavement markings on Market Street and around the courthouse would be done at night. That timeline is a projection from June, and no updated schedule has been published since. If it holds, the side streets will be rebuilt during the first half of 2027.
That leaves this fall as the last full season under today's layout. Several October and early November events are within a block or two of the lots above:
- Friends of the Library Halloween fundraiser, Friday, Oct. 23, 7 to 9:30 p.m., at the library, 305 E. Market St. This is an adults-only evening with author Ed Southern, and the library lot between North Third and Fourth is the one that just gained spaces.
- Hocus Pocus movie night, Saturday, Oct. 24, 7 p.m., at the Neuse River Amphitheater on the Smithfield Neuse Riverwalk, hosted by Once Upon A Crime. South Front Street is on the Town's list of streets that still have on-street parking.
- Johnston County Heritage Center Ghost Walk, Oct. 29 and 30, 6 to 8 p.m., at Riverside Cemetery. Tours start near Second and Church streets beside St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and both of those streets still have curbside spaces.
- Fall Fridays on Front Street with Soule & the Superband, Nov. 6, 7 to 9 p.m., at the Neuse River Amphitheater, with food and beverage trucks starting at 6 p.m.
Downtown Smithfield Development Corporation Executive Director Heidi Gilmond told the Council in July that the organization had tried and failed to keep Market Street parking, and that it would keep advocating for downtown. The decisions made since the curb closed, from the June one-way plan to the August First Baptist reimbursement and the September Building Industry Association deal, have put downtown parking on Second Street, Third Street and the lots behind them.
If you own a home within walking distance of the courthouse and wonder how a quieter Market Street and a one-way loop might affect its value, The Thomas Parker Realty Group works from an office in downtown Smithfield and is following this project block by block. Get your free home valuation, and we'll walk you through what has changed on your street.
