By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
The City of Elkhorn Public Safety Committee voted in favor of directing staff to seek out urban planning consultants to determine what it would cost to further investigate possible options for improving parking in Elkhorn’s downtown area. The discussion and vote took place at the Jan. 11 meeting.
All three committee members voted in favor of the motion, with the two other councilmembers in attendance voicing their support during discussion.
Discussion largely focused around current two-hour parking regulations in the downtown area, as well as parking for residents in the apartments above downtown businesses.
Police Chief Joel Christensen said while it predates his service, he believes the two-hour parking ordinance was created to prevent people from parking in front of downtown businesses all day, thus taking away the potential for customers to visit those businesses.
Christensen said as businesses haven’t complained about the two-hour parking, it’s something he can only assume is an ordinance they’re satisfied with.
Elkhorn Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Chris Clapper said she thinks the two-hour parking fits the majority of downtown businesses, outside of a couple of businesses that might have a need for longer appointments with customers or clients.
City Clerk Lacey Reynolds said one of the biggest parking complaints is that people park their car all day in a downtown slot – with businesses knowing that their customers then don’t have a spot to park in close by, as well as business owners who park directly in front of their own business all day.
“You have both, and those are the only two complaints I hear,” Reynolds said.
Committee members ultimately determined that altering two-hour parking is not the answer at this time.
Alderman Scott McClory said it has also been brought up to the council that there are vacant residential spaces above some of the businesses, largely because without nearby parking for those residences, it’s difficult to attract potential tenants.
“Unless you walk or ride a bike, there’s nowhere for them to park their cars,” Clapper said. “The only place to park the cars is, I call it the Nickel Plate parking lot … otherwise, there is no other parking lot unless you want to walk the municipal lot by the chamber building, and technically, if I read the ordinance right, you’re not supposed to park in it 24 hours. So, where is somebody supposed to park their car?”
According to Clapper, many of those buildings have maybe one or two parking stalls available behind the buildings, and that’s only if those spots aren’t occupied by a trash dumpster.
“There’s nowhere for some of this stuff to go, unfortunately,” she said. “Some of them have two apartments up there, because they’re so small. If you have two cars, where are you going to put them?”
It was noted that parking along the courthouse side of Wisconsin and Church streets is not limited to two hours, and parking is not allowed in those stalls only between the hours of 3 to 6 a.m., to allow for plows and street cleaners to come through during the various seasons.
Alderman Frank Boggs said he agrees that there is definitely an issue with parking downtown, but he doesn’t have an immediate solution for it.
According to City Attorney Ward Phillips, when these types of issues have come up in Elkhorn in the past, the city has turned to urban planning organizations to look into, and research, the problem as well as possible solutions.
“If we were to turn to one of these consultants, they may be able to give us ideas that as just regular citizens, we’re not going to think of,” Phillips said. “They may have answers to these questions that seem to be troubling the city so much.”
While Phillips said it’s not his place to make recommendations, he said it might not be a bad idea to reach out to these types of organizations and see what it might cost to have them look at the city’s parking ordinance, for example, and come up with a more creative solution.
“There’s probably an answer to it, I just don’t know what it is, and these people might be able to give it to us,” he said.
Committee members agreed that was a good idea with Boggs making a motion to direct staff to look into what it would cost to engage an urban planning organization. As part of the process, committee members also asked that city staff reach out to downtown business owners as well.
Boggs’ motion was approved 3-0 by committee members.
