CALDWELL, Idaho — The City of Caldwell is seeking input from the public about a new downtown parking plan.
In August, the city ruled to deactivate the parking meters following months of complaints from downtown businesses. The business owners claimed the meters affected their business sales and petitioned for the city to remove them.
The meters were live in total for about 100 days.
After turning the parking meters off, the city formed a parking committee to help with the future of downtown parking. The committee is made up of local business owners and community members.
City staff, like councilmember Diana Register, attended the committee meetings to help answer any questions regarding city code, she told KTVB.
At Monday night's city council meeting, Register shared an update on different ideas the committee suggests.
Time limits, and what days to applied them
The committee suggested a three- or four-hour time limits that driver can park downtown for before being penalized. It also suggested time limit be in place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Below is what they city will consider:
- Three hours of parking every day.
- Three hours of parking Monday through Friday.
- Three hours of parking Tuesday through Saturday.
- Four hours of parking every day.
- Four hours of parking Monday through Friday.
- Four hours of parking Tuesday through Saturday.
Register shared why four hours may be a better option than three.
"The point is to bring people downtown without rushing them out and so we want people to go have time to have dinner and lunch and shop and not be rushed to leave," Register said at the meeting.
She added the committee suggested other elements to the plan, that council could consider too.
- No parking overnight in free city lots and street parking within the boundary lines.
- A longer parking limit of five hours near the movie theater.
- More 20-minute parking slots near the post office. Register said currently those are 10-minute parking slots, but some feel that isn't enough time.
Council President, Brad Doty, suggested putting the options out to the public for the next two weeks. Register encouraged by next meeting on Dec. 2 for council to give city staff guidance on what they'd like to revise code to say. Then, an official vote on the new rules will take place.
Costs of new signs
Register provided some cost-associated details for new parking signs at Monday's meeting.
She said the city has about 70 signs that used to be up before the meters. The signs let people know they could park in that area for three hours on Monday through Friday.
The city can reuse those signs with that verbiage if it aligns with the time limit they choose.
If the city were to repaint every sign with new verbiage, at most, it would cost $7,000, city officials said.