St. Joseph City Commissioners have held their first meeting since the implementation of paid parking in part of the downtown, and they’re wasting no time considering changes to the program.
At Wednesday’s regular meeting of the commission, Mayor Brook Thomas said while the new paid parking program has been successful in moving cars from the west side of Main Street to the east side, the parking subgroup, which includes her, has made some changes. They’re recommending paid parking not start until the Friday before Memorial Day going forward. They’re also adding more time options to the pay stations and on the app, and the group plans to allow users to pay in 15-minute increments, up to an hour, and in 30-minute increments.
Commissioner Michael Fernandez then proposed that the two city commissioners on the parking subgroup be rotated so there can be more voices. Commissioner Michelle Binkley agreed to give up her seat for Fernandez to join.
Also, Commissioner Tess Ulrey had a proposal.
“I would really, really value seeing some feedback and some real numbers from the parking subgroup about what a residential parking pass would look like,” Ulrey said. “From my very limited knowledge of the system, we have that infrastructure here in place the way that we register our vehicles for the parks.”
City Manager Emily Hackworth said commissioners can indeed direct the subgroup to study that.
Commissioner Michael Sarola also proposed increasing the membership of the Downtown Development Authority Board from nine to eleven. He said more voices are needed.
“The idea of paid parking in downtown St. Joe actually originated with the DDA,” Sarola said. “They brought it to the city commission. I’ve gotten the sense from business owners that they don’t feel like perhaps the existing group on the DDA had a pulse of what the rest of the business owners felt.”
City Attorney Laurie Schmidt said the commission appoints the DDA board members. Also, she said the board can have up to 12 members. Therefore, Sarola changed his request to expand the DDA board to 12 members.
Other changes that have already been made by the parking subgroup are improved signage and the dismissal of tickets issued before the improved signage was added.
Commissioners Wednesday heard from a long line of downtown business owners and employees who said the paid parking has decimated their sales since it started May 15. We’ll have a detailed story with more on what they had to say Thursday.
