T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY During Monday night’s meeting, the Marshalltown city council discussed the prospect of business specific short-term parking downtown at the request of the owners of the yet-to-be opened coffee and pastry shop Grounded in the old Willard’s building at 36 W. Main St. The council voted unanimously to explore options for short-term parking without leasing them to specific businesses.

Fresh off of a contentious conversation about whether or not this weekend’s Oktemberfest celebration should be moved outside of the downtown area, the city council moved on to another downtown-related discussion item — a request for dedicated business-specific on-street parking.

Public Works Director Heather Thomas told the council she wasn’t asking for council approval on the specific request but said she would like direction on a practice and policy for such requests in the future as the city does not currently have anything that would allow such an arrangement.

“The request stemmed from a new business that we are welcoming to our downtown in the Willard’s building. They will be having a shop that will be having some to-go orders or pickup orders, and they have requested for two spots that have a time limit of 15 to 20 minutes that are dedicated for that business,” she said.

The two stalls for the business to be known as Grounded, featuring specialty coffee and fresh pastries according to its Instagram page, would be on 1st Street. Back in 2023, the council engaged in a discussion on dedicated spots specific to city parking lots, but that wouldn’t cover the request at hand. As Thomas opened the floor up to council questions, Councilor Mike Ladehoff asked about the difference between having two spots in the parking lot behind the business as opposed to on the street, and she said the business in question has a side door that would be intended for direct access where an employee could run orders out within steps to the vehicles.

Councilor Mark Mitchell asked if the police department would be responsible for ensuring that vehicles aren’t being parked longer than the designated time frame as he felt they are already overworked. Thomas said that if the council chose not to pursue a business specific route, they could instead add additional stalls with shorter parking time restrictions.

If they did choose to allow the business specific stalls, only the person leasing the stalls could request assistance from parking enforcement or the MPD. She added, however, that stalls probably wouldn’t be checked every 30 minutes every day, so it would probably be complaint driven.

Councilor Gary Thompson said he liked the idea but didn’t think a lot of businesses downtown would jump on the opportunity.

“We’ve had that conversation earlier about McDonald’s coming to downtown. We want to do what we can to help the businesses in the core there. I’m in support of at least trying this, moving forward with this,” he said.

Fellow Councilor Melisa Fonseca said she liked the idea of short-term parking but did not want it to be business specific and instead “spread evenly” around the area as other restaurants already offer to-go orders and pickup options. She then motioned to allow staff to review and let the council know where the limited time spots would be but not business specific, which was seconded by Ladehoff.

Thomas said staff would recommend the stalls toward the center section of each block, particularly adjacent to vehicular and pedestrian alleys, and looking at one per block. Thompson expressed concern about enforcing the limits on the city-owned spots if they aren’t leased out to specific business owners.

During the public comment period, Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO John Hall pointed out that there are already 30-minute spots in front of First Interstate Bank on Main Street, and he said it would be a best practice to have the shortest time frame closest to the doors with the idea of pushing business owners and employees to park further away from their doors to maximize the availability of space for visitors.

“The only consideration that I would offer for the reserved spots or the dedicated spots for business over general would be potential abuse from business owners or their employees who wish to park as close to the front doors as possible,” he said. “And anything we can do to minimize that maximizes the space for potential shoppers and visitors.”

Dave Grieve said he liked the idea of short-term parking and felt it would benefit Seven Rayos liquor store next to his building would benefit from such an arrangement as it competes with other businesses on the block that typically have more long-term shoppers.

“That block needs a bigger parking lot, period,” he said. “I like the idea of Main Street having a lot of short-term parking because there’s a lot of short-term businesses in those areas as opposed to the long-term shopping. So John’s idea was good.”

Breana Alvarado of Sub City said the business has 90-minute parking behind it that has been “so wonderful” for elderly customers to use with people using it right and increasing convenience. Fonseca’s original motion to explore short-term parking not specific to individual businesses passed by a unanimous 7-0 vote.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.