A new parking plan is now in place to make sure there are plenty of spots once the Downtown Arena opens next year.

The county needs 2,400 parking spots within a four block radius to cover 80 percent of arena events. Now there's a plan to make sure those spaces are available.

"This plan has gone through much scrutiny and a lot of work over the last year," said Sedgwick County Commissioner Dave Unruh.

The county will now pay the City of Wichita $5 million from the arena sales tax fund to build and buy land for those spaces.

The state office building garage and surface lots will provide the majority of spots. Others will come from new lots just East of the railroad tracks along Waterman, at Emporia and Lewis streets and under the Kellogg flyover at Saint Francis.

The county will also lease spaces from private owners and there will be parking on the actual arena site.

For larger, sell-out events the county is still working out a plan that could include park and ride services.

"Some people will not be pleased with this and I'm not really crazy about it but I think it's the best we can do for the arena opening," said County Commissioner Gwen Welshimer.

Both the county and city realize parking needs will change as the arena area develops. That's why this $5 million is in addition to up to $10 million the city included for more parking when making it's arena TIF district last week.

It's a controversial form of financing because property tax money made from the site will go back into development instead of county and city coffers. County Commissioners are set to debate whether to aprove the TIF next week. The City Council is set to vote on the parking plan on Tuesday.