City of Saint Joseph pauses paid parking program until next spring, looking to downtown businesses for feedback

SAINT JOSEPH, Mich. -- Some businesses in downtown Saint Joseph are celebrating after the city made a decision to continue the pause on its paid parking through next spring!

The pause has been in place since last month, when city staff recognized some of its parking meters were not ADA compliant.

The parking situation now is the same as it was last summer. There is no parking fee, but time limits are still being enforced. For most street spots, the time limit is three hours.

In the meantime, city leaders say they're taking the time to make sure they can come up with a parking plan everyone has a say in for next summer.

They're doing what they call "listening tours", going door-to-door to each downtown business for feedback on how to improve the parking program.

But even just the pause of the program is a win for some business owners.

"It's a good thing," says Jim Kramer, Co-Owner of Schu's Grill & Bar. "They can suspend it forever as far as I'm concerned."

Kramer is just one of the Saint Joseph business owners who said 'No' to a downtown paid parking program who can now go through the rest of the summer with no parking problems.

"It caused such a disarray in our town," Kramer explains.

The extended pause on paid parking is in response to that disarray.

"When we're hearing people say that this program isn't working, then it's time to take the time to make sure that it works," explains Kayla Griffith, Director of Special Projects and Communications for the city of Saint Joseph.

The city is taking feedback now to make a more efficient plan for next summer.

For now though, drivers will find that the thirty-some parking meters are off, the parking app won't work, and there are no longer parking ambassadors walking the streets.

"Enforcement is how it's always been with our Saint Joe police officers," Griffith says. "We haven't increased patrols or anything, we're kind of just going back to how things were."

City staff says the financial impact isn't much, as the money made from paid parking was going back into downtown development.

Plus, the equipment will likely be used again.

"That's all something we're working towards making back up as part of the program for next year however it rolls out," says Griffith.

However, it does roll back out, it will be complete with business owner feedback, and as some predict, probably more trial and error.

"I think that they would need to make some changes with it and try to figure out a better way to do this and shrink it down and make it more manageable," says Kramer. "Try some things on a smaller basis to see what works and doesn't work."

The listening tour is set to continue throughout the next few months.

City leaders hope this turns into a bigger conversation of incorporating business owner voices into more decisions about downtown.

They've been visiting each business with an application for the city's Downtown Development Authority in hand, so they can have more of a stake in decisions that impact downtown.