T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Under the current city ordinance, parking is restricted in downtown Marshalltown from 2:30 to 5:30 a.m. During the last two meetings, there have been ongoing discussions about either lifting that restriction altogether or creating a permit system for residents who have overnight visitors.

The Marshalltown city council resumed a previous discussion on a regulation that bans parking in the downtown area between 2:30 and 5:30 a.m. during Monday night’s regular meeting.

Julie Miller, who owns a building and apartments at 30 E. Main St., brought the issue to the council’s agenda during its previous meeting after she received a parking ticket while trying to address an urgent situation with a tenant at about 4:18 a.m. Public Works Director Heather Thomas outlined the streets where the guidelines are in place and explained the rationale behind them.

“Part of that reason was to get vehicles off the street and into the public parking lots,” she said before noting that the maximum amount of time one vehicle can be parked in a city lot increased from 24 to 72 hours last year.

Thomas said she reviewed policies in other communities and found a mix — Ames, for example, has restricted parking downtown late at night, while other cities have either meters or fee-based permits. Therefore, she didn’t feel that there was a standard or best practice to follow.

“One of the reasons they have those hours in the morning is to allow maintenance of the road. That can be anything from street sweeping (to) pavement marking, snow removal, pothole patching, replacing and repairing curbs, going in to take care of signage and those kinds of things,” Thomas said. “So that three-hour (period) that we have downtown is what allows our staff to come in. They usually come in about 2 in the morning to do the work they do in the (Central Business District) area.”

Councilor Greg Nichols asked Thomas for her thoughts on what Ottumwa does, which is enforcing an hour limit and then posting it as a snow route to keep the roads clean, and she said the downside was that there are more activities than just snow where they need access. Typically, the city of Marshalltown doesn’t declare a snow emergency unless there are two inches or more of snowfall, and there are smaller situations where residents still expect streets to be cleared.

“The more cars that are in the parking areas on the street, the less effective we are with our motor graders that clear the snow downtown to get in and around vehicles. It can become a challenge,” Thomas said.

Councilor Mike Ladehoff noted that the city has been developing and encouraging downtown housing over the last several years with positive results, and he worried about guests of those residents having a place to park without getting a ticket. Citing a previous situation from his time working at Lennox during a construction period, he suggested some sort of temporary permitting program.

“If we’re gonna encourage people to live downtown, if you want to have a friend or a guest over overnight. You want to show them the place. You want to show them the downtown, but if they don’t have a place that they can park, that gets pretty tough,” Ladehoff said. “So that’s my opinion. I’m open to other people’s opinions.”

Fellow Councilor Barry Kell worried about placing a heavy burden on the police department to enforce a permit system for “maybe a marginal benefit.” He also felt that if the intention was to accommodate visitors, it would primarily be on the weekends anyway, when city staff doesn’t typically work unless there is a snow emergency.

“I don’t know if that’s a better middle ground, but I just fear the position we’ll be putting the police department and other city staff in if we start to form exceptions or try something out (that’s) different. But maybe it’s completely doable,” Kell said.

With no initial public comments, Ladehoff motioned to direct city staff to bring back a resolution creating a permitting system for tenants who have guests in need of a street parking space. City Clerk Alicia Hunter said the current city code does allow for the issuance of permits but does not outline the guidelines or who would be in charge of issuing it. She added that there are already permitted parking zones in other areas of town around the high school and by Lennox.

Miller then stepped forward to the podium, explaining that she recently hosted visitors at her loft and told them where they would need to park to avoid a ticket, which wasn’t convenient but is a relatively rare occurrence for her.

“I think the biggest problem as I’ve stated in the last month is the safe parking under lights. Obviously, no one else in Marshalltown got up to speak on this as a problem. That tells me that they have safe parking, whether it’s the buildings that have established parking behind, say, lit parking,” she said. “So other downtown dwellings already have safe, lit, comfortable parking that they’re happy with, obviously, or they’d be here.”

Miller added that she felt “discouraged” because she had hoped to get three parking permits near the courthouse and find something safer than parking between two bars — Vaughn’s and the Center Street Station — late at night. Linda Clark said the uniformity of parking in town was good, but she also called for better lighting to ensure people feel safe.

Thomas fielded a few more questions from Mayor Joel Greer about downtown street lighting, and Nichols brought up a parking lot that was actually the next on the agenda to be discussed.

“There is definitely a concern in some of the parking lots about lighting. We are trying to address that in this next project that’s coming up,” Thomas said.

She added that getting more lighting in downtown alleys was something the council could certainly consider in future discussions, and Greer said there had been conversations about turning the alley just west of city hall into a more pedestrian friendly area similar to the one between the Tremont and Wax Xtatic record store.

As he attempted to steer back to the original discussion item, Kell asked Greer if what they were considering was a matter of safety, convenience or both, as a safety related issue would not require an ordinance rewrite while the convenience angle might take “a little deeper look.” Ladehoff then asked Thomas directly if she felt the existing parking lots had adequate space for both residents and guests.

“I do,” she said. “I do understand the concerns from some of them wanting to park closer to the building. A property owner not far off from one that spoke earlier had brought this concern to me earlier this year, and I worked with them to identify a parking lot that was in the vicinity that they felt was safer. So they’re actually parking in Marshall County’s lot on the east side of 1st Ave… That might be an option for the citizen that spoke earlier.”

Finally, Councilor Mark Mitchell seconded Ladehoff’s motion to direct staff, and it passed by a unanimous 6-0 vote with Gary Thompson absent.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.