City leaders in St. Joseph are spreading the news about the coming changes to downtown parking in the summer, hoping to allay concerns and clarify what the arrangement will be.
Starting May 15 and continuing through September 15, parking will no longer be free in city lots and on streets west of Main Street. However, St. Joe City Manager Emily Hackworth told the WSJM Morning Show Wednesday parking will still be totally free east of Main Street. Some people have been a little confused about that.
“There’s also been a lot of confusion about, ‘I shouldn’t have to pay to come downtown,’” Hackworth said. “You don’t have to. Everyone gets choice. There are areas where you can choose to pay to park.”
Hackworth says the whole idea of the program is to free up the parking spaces closest to downtown businesses for their customers. Right now, beach goers park all day in the free spots, and some employees of downtown businesses also take up those spots all day. The goal is to get some of those users of parking spots to move across Main Street, where parking is usually more abundant.
The Downtown Development Authority’s Deb Sailor, also owner of The Cheese Lady, tells us crossing the street to get to work isn’t all that much of a burden for most employees to shoulder. She says the east side will be free all day.
“I am certain that before paid parking happened, a lot of those employees last year and the year before and for the last 20 years that I’ve lived here, were already parking there,” Sailor said. “That’s where most of the all day spots were. So unless you were working a two or three hour shift, you were probably parking there anyway.”
Sailor says those prime spots right in front of businesses should be available for the customers of those businesses, something she believed when she used to own Jimmy John’s, on the west side. Hackworth notes the city will have a waiver program for any downtown workers with physical limitations, and downtown residents who lack parking are also being grandfathered in so they can continue parking for free.
As things stand, between 9 a.m. and 9 pm. it will cost $1 an hour to park in a lot on the west side of Main Street, and $2 an hour to park on the street on the west side of Main. Lots will offer all day parking, but on-street parking will be limited to three hours.
Hackworth says the city has a new parking map, which has been standardized to make more sense. You can learn more right here.