Now that the St. Joseph City Commission has officially paused the downtown paid parking program, it can’t be restarted without another vote of the body.

Commissioner Michael Sarola made the motion Monday night to formally pause the program, a couple of weeks after City Manager Emily Hackworth paused it for legal reasons. Sarola tells us that pause is being used for more than just getting the pay stations ADA-compliant. So, when will the pause end?

“I think there’s been no decision reached as to when or if it will be unpaused,” Sarola said. “First and foremost, we have to address ADA compliance issues. Obviously, that was the official reason to pause them, but you will note that at the same time, our city manager also made note that there needed to be a lot more community engagement and we wanted to make sure we had the buy-in from major stakeholders downtown and more residents.”

Sarola says there are a lot of questions to be asked.

“Getting a better understanding of what the stakeholders downtown want and need out of a potential paid parking program. We are gathering information on what missed the mark and what still maybe has some promise as part of some type of paid parking.”

Sarola says the goal of the paid parking is to get more parking rotation downtown so there aren’t cars just left in the lots all day taking up space while shop customers and visitors are trying to park. He notes the parking problem goes back decades, while talk of a paid parking program began several years ago.

City leaders are hoping to restart the program in a way that won’t be a burden for downtown businesses and residents.