The city of New Buffalo has put a pause on plans to implement a paid parking system downtown this summer.
New Buffalo City Manager Darwin Watson tells us the city council in May voted to move forward with a program that would have required payment to park around the central business district. However, following a town hall last week at which several downtown business owners expressed worries, the council this week decided to wait until next year. Watson says there were several issues raised by the businesses.
“Knowing where employees would be parking, that was the biggest concern that we got from them,” Watson said. “Then just how it would be implemented as well as when it would be rolled out and things of that nature.”
Watson says New Buffalo has struggled with congestion issues during the busy summer as people park in business lots and then head to the beach or walk around all day, just leaving their cars behind. He says the city for a few years implemented a three-hour parking rule that was enforced by having police chalk vehicle tires, but then the courts ruled the practice unconstitutional in 2019. That made it impossible to continue.
“Three-hour parking without any kind of license plate recognition or a kiosk type system could not be enforced because you would have to have somebody literally sitting at every parking space starting a timer at that time.”
Therefore, Watson says the idea of starting a paid parking program was proposed a few years ago.
Although the city has paused the paid parking program, Watson says as of right now, the plan is still to start it next year. The paid parking would be in effect from the Friday before Memorial Day through Labor Day. He says this pause enables the city council to meet with business owners to refine the plan and gives the city more time to prepare.
Watson tells us by the end of the year, the city should be “ready to roll” with all of the equipment in place to get started by next Memorial Day.
