It’s a done deal. Paid parking is coming to downtown St. Joseph this summer following action by city commissioners Monday.
At its regular meeting, the city commission held a second and final reading of an ordinance implementing the paid parking, and also approved a resolution establishing many of the rules governing it. This comes after talks that have gone back to 2016 and a proposal coming out of discussions with a consultant last year.
The paid parking will be on the west side of Main Street from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. between May 15 and September 15.
Commissioners heard an earful from residents both for and against the plan. Kellye Wilson of Perrenial Accents was against the change.
“When I hear locals say, ‘I’m not coming downtown,’ it makes my skin crawl,” Wilson said. “Because I’m like, you may be mad at the city, but you’re gonna kill your businesses if you don’t come downtown. And those are the ones that are going to lose, and then you’re not going to have a downtown.”
Commissioners have made several changes to the original proposal, including a waiver program for existing downtown residents who lack parking where they live and passes for downtown employees who have physical or financial limitations. Otherwise, most visitors will have to pay to park on the west side of Main Street during the summer.
Resident Tom Gawlik said the complaints represent more of a walking problem than a parking problem.
“When you look at the compact nature of our downtown, if you think it’s an ordeal to walk from this parking lot to a business that’s two blocks away, I don’t know, I can’t help you,” Gawlike said. “Frankly, I can’t help you.”
The reason why some of the parking rules were established in a resolution and not the parking ordinance is so commissioners can make changes to the parking program quickly, without needing two meetings to do so. They stressed they will make adjustments as reasons present themselves.
The city has purchased 30 parking paystations, or a visitor could use an app to pay.
Commissioners Monday also approved an ambassador program that will hired part time staff to inform residents and visitors of the new arrangement.