The city of St. Joseph is inviting everyone to a series of public information sessions on its plans for the downtown paid parking program in 2026.
To be held in February, there will be two information sessions specifically for business owners and two sessions for residents. Communications Director Kayla Griffith tells us they’ll have members of the city’s parking subgroup on hand to answer questions and take comments.
“It really is an open house type of format where we’re going to have kind of stations around the room with posters that explain the program,” Griffith said. “It’s going to talk about pricing, hours. It’s going to talk about scope and kind of where paid parking is proposed for this next year.”
Griffith says after a rocky rollout to paid parking last year, the city wants to make sure everyone understands just what is happening.
“We understand that we heard a lot of feedback from the community last year that people were surprised by the program and didn’t know it was coming and didn’t feel there was a good opportunity to learn more and understand it before the commission voted on it. So we really want to make sure that people have that good understanding.”
Just as important, Griffith says city leaders want feedback from residents and business owners on the paid parking program. She says city leaders have met with more than 50 business owners since paid parking was paused back in June, and that’s not all.
“Throughout the off-season, we’ve also been kind of monitoring Facebook, taking a look at different conversations, receiving feedback, and making sure that we were taking a careful look at what everyone’s perspectives were on the program.”
Something that will be stressed during the sessions is how revenue from the program will be used. Griffin says 80% of it will stay downtown for infrastructure and other improvements.
So, why are there separate meetings planned for business owners and residents?
“By having two different sessions, we are really able to focus more on the different concerns and perspectives that business owners and residents have. We know that there’s a lot of overlap there, but in having separate sessions for businesses and residents, we are able to focus on kind of those different perspectives and concerns a little more up close.”
To gather additional input, the City will host open house-style sessions for both businesses and residents at City Hall, 700 Broad St. The information sessions will take place as follows:
• Businesses – 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, February 3 and 2-4 p.m. Wednesday, February 4
• Residents – 5-7 p.m. Monday, February 9 and Tuesday, February 10
Everyone’s invited.
