By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
Late last fall, after the Main Avenue reconstruction project was completed, the city of Zeeland instituted a two-hour limit for parking on most downtown streets, including Main from State Street to Maple Street.
Now the city is getting ready to unveil its next phase of parking regulations. The city plans to institute a four-hour limit on parking at its city-owned north and south parking lots early next month. The regulations will be in effect Monday through Saturday, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., City Marketing Director Abby deRoo said.
DeRoo updated the City Council Monday on the planned rollout of the latest parking regulations, which fall in line with a city goal the council had identified in its strategic action plan that it adopted in January.
DeRoo told the council that while a 2023 parking study found that the city had enough parking to meet its needs at that time, the situation with parking has become “uncomfortably tight” in light of recent development downtown.
“We have more apartment tenants, we had two restaurants open in the main block during that time – Gritzmaker and Public. Restaurants bring in many of our downtown customers, and especially during those busy meal times where we were already pinched,” deRoo said.
“Between employees, customers and new residential tenants, we have more users using our lots, which were already tight.”
DeRoo said that the two-hour parking limits that are now being enforced on Main Avenue have worked.
“That has helped generate turnover of the on-street parking. When we do find that some users are misusing the timed parking, our police department is able to come and respond and have a conversation with (drivers of) those vehicles,” she said.
Another emphasis in managing parking will be to train users who have been using the north and south lots, such as business employees, property owners and tenants, to instead use the city’s long-term shared parking lots at First Christian Reformed Church, Second Reformed Church, North Street Christian Reformed Church, and the 40 parking spaces the city has leased from the Huntington Bank lot on North Elm, deRoo said.
“By moving our everyday, all-day users out of the north and south parking lots and into the outer lots, we have just freed up quite a bit of customer parking,” deRoo said.
The city plans to issue communications to all downtown addresses detailing the coming regulations, and will hand-deliver the notices to main floor businesses that have employees, deRoo said.
DeRoo said she did not expect the implementation of the four-hour limit in the north and south lots to be the final stage of addressing the city’s parking issues.
“We realize that this is just the next step in parking management. At some point, and it could be soon, we will still need more parking. We’ll continue to work towards that, where that fits. We may have more partnerships with that,” deRoo said.
Zeeland Record
Late last fall, after the Main Avenue reconstruction project was completed, the city of Zeeland instituted a two-hour limit for parking on most downtown streets, including Main from State Street to Maple Street.
Now the city is getting ready to unveil its next phase of parking regulations. The city plans to institute a four-hour limit on parking at its city-owned north and south parking lots early next month. The regulations will be in effect Monday through Saturday, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., City Marketing Director Abby deRoo said.
DeRoo updated the City Council Monday on the planned rollout of the latest parking regulations, which fall in line with a city goal the council had identified in its strategic action plan that it adopted in January.
DeRoo told the council that while a 2023 parking study found that the city had enough parking to meet its needs at that time, the situation with parking has become “uncomfortably tight” in light of recent development downtown.
“We have more apartment tenants, we had two restaurants open in the main block during that time – Gritzmaker and Public. Restaurants bring in many of our downtown customers, and especially during those busy meal times where we were already pinched,” deRoo said.
“Between employees, customers and new residential tenants, we have more users using our lots, which were already tight.”
DeRoo said that the two-hour parking limits that are now being enforced on Main Avenue have worked.
“That has helped generate turnover of the on-street parking. When we do find that some users are misusing the timed parking, our police department is able to come and respond and have a conversation with (drivers of) those vehicles,” she said.
Another emphasis in managing parking will be to train users who have been using the north and south lots, such as business employees, property owners and tenants, to instead use the city’s long-term shared parking lots at First Christian Reformed Church, Second Reformed Church, North Street Christian Reformed Church, and the 40 parking spaces the city has leased from the Huntington Bank lot on North Elm, deRoo said.
“By moving our everyday, all-day users out of the north and south parking lots and into the outer lots, we have just freed up quite a bit of customer parking,” deRoo said.
The city plans to issue communications to all downtown addresses detailing the coming regulations, and will hand-deliver the notices to main floor businesses that have employees, deRoo said.
DeRoo said she did not expect the implementation of the four-hour limit in the north and south lots to be the final stage of addressing the city’s parking issues.
“We realize that this is just the next step in parking management. At some point, and it could be soon, we will still need more parking. We’ll continue to work towards that, where that fits. We may have more partnerships with that,” deRoo said.
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