Paid parking in downtown St. Joseph is “officially” paused now that city commissioners have approved a resolution establishing the change.
Although the paid parking was suspended by City Manager Emily Hackworth on June 9 due to legal issues, commissioners also wanted to make it clear they support the action. At Monday’s regular meeting, they approved the resolution to do so after it was introduced by Commissioner Michael Sarola.
Hackworth told the commission while Abonmarche has now completed a report on the parking stations and what it will take to get them ADA-compliant, she has met with 28 downtown business owners to get their thoughts on how the paid parking program could be improved. She has eleven more meetings scheduled, and is working on 59 more.
“The next step when we come up for air from that, we’ll be looking at downtown residents to meet with,” Hackworth said. “And we have started talking to some residents, but we’ll be reaching out to more.”
The pause is being used as an opportunity to address the concerns of merchants and residents who cried foul when paid parking began in May. And the pause has been well received. Wendy Baker of G&M Variety told commissioners Monday it’s like a cloud has been lifted off the downtown.
“The parking pause has made people very happy to be able to just free to be able to come down, shop, enjoy their town, have that cup of coffee, watch the sunset, hang out with their friends down on the bluff,” Baker said.
Commissioners still got some pressure Monday to end the paid parking program altogether, but they took no action other than to make the pause official.
There is no word yet on how long the pause will last.
