St. Joseph City Commissioners have been updated on possible changes that could be coming to the paid parking program downtown.
Paid parking debuted on the west side of Main Street last May, prompting vocal opposition from some residents and many in the business community. The program was suspended in June due to ADA compliance issues, but commissioners were expected to revisit the matter in the new year.
Speaking to commissioners Monday, Community Development Director Kelly Ewalt said the parking subgroup has been meeting to discuss changes. Nothing is final, but the group has some recommendations.
“If parking comes back, it will be vastly different,” Ewalt said. “We’re looking at possibly just on-street parking in the highest demand areas. There’ll be free parking on both sides of Main Street, and there will be some paid parking east of Main Street. So we’re going to kind of even things out. Again, I say this is potentially what’s going to happen. So just kind of evening things out. It’s very scaled back.”
Ewalt said since the paid parking program was started, city staff have met with 53 business owners to gather program feedback. They learned the merchants still view parking congestion downtown as a major challenge. They also identified a few positives of the program, like more use of east side lots.
“The employees were parking over here [on the east side], so it opened up more space on the west side. Overall, some people thought it was good for the downtown and they really liked those 30-minute spots. So I know those come in handy.”
The negatives included customers being affected, frustration with the pay stations and app, and unhappy employees. The businesses were also asked whether they understood the rationale for the paid parking and what sort of financial impact it had on them.
“For the most part, people said yes. They got why we did it. They may not have liked it, but they liked why we did it. And then on one of the other ones, the financial impact — were you up, down, no change? You can see a couple were up, no impact was 11, and down was 15. Some of the other ones just didn’t give feedback.”
Ewalt said the city will hold community open houses on parking in the new year, two for businesses and two for residents.
“So just kind of get the plan out, what we’re thinking, get feedback. If there’s something people absolutely despise, can we tweak it? But we really want to be transparent and get as much feedback as we can moving forward.”
The dates for those open houses have not yet been set, but Ewalt said they will likely be in February. City commissioners could officially receive some recommendations the same month, after the open houses have been held.
