St. Joseph City Commissioners have approved some amendments to the city’s parking ordinance to simplify rules and help developers.

Commissioners on Monday held a second and final reading to changes proposed by the planning commission after several years of work and study. Community Development Director Kristen Gundersen told the city commission about some of the changes at a meeting earlier this month.

“There’s different ways to calculate required parking based on floor area, usable floor area, employee counts, table counts, and that was very confusing and difficult to do for new developers coming in,” Gundersen said.

Gundersen said the changes also require slightly fewer parking spaces for apartment complexes and eliminate duplicate rules.

After the second reading Monday, City Manager Emily Hackworth said a lot of work by many people went into the update. She noted an unwieldy parking ordinance has caused problems in the past.

“When I started with the city of St. Joseph, I heard a lot about this property, the YWCA property, and how there was a planned project many years ago that didn’t happen because of our parking ordinance, and tonight we officially changed it,” Hackworth said.

Hackworth said the change was long overdue and she commended Gundersen and the planning commission for all of their work.

The zoning amendment is intended to simplify rules and eliminate confusion. The changes approved this week are not related to the city’s paid parking program.