There will be more parking available downtown in St. Paul.
A lot located just off Main Street has been chosen to help solve the traffic problem downtown. The lot is located behind the Lions Park at 51st Ave and 49th St.
The parking lot was in talks of being set up right before Covid-19 because there were concerns about where business staff would be parking. St. Paul’s Mayor Maureen Miller says businesses were reporting patrons would have a hard time finding parking and the staff’s cars would be blocking spots for the full day.
“We started looking around at available property the town could identify as a parking area so that business could either send patrons to that location or so the business could know their staff could park in that location.”
The parking lot will open up the front doors so more patrons can find parking and have easier access to more places in the town. The front side of the rented lot has been charged into a park that will host gatherings while the backside was left vacant and selected to host community parking.
“People have parked there but it has not been identified as a parking area. We have just now leveled it and will identify it as community parking and it would fill both of those roles.”
Maureen Miller says this has been a long time coming but took a break because people lost the need for extra parking during the pandemic.Â
“It kind of fell off the radar based on the activities that were happening at the time so this is indicative of us being back up to normal with a normal workload.”
Miller says the need dropped but now it is back and it is something to be thankful for.