Major Changes To Parking In Downtown St. Cloud Begin Next Week

(KNSI) – Major changes to parking in downtown St. Cloud begin next month.

Starting June 1, there will be no free street parking in the evenings and weekends. Instead, parking will be free in ramps after 5 p.m. and on weekends.

St. Cloud Public Services Director Tracy Hodel says the city talked with several different business owners and organizations to help develop the plan, and many owners have the same message.

“You want that quick turnover, you want a convenient space where they can come and be at their businesses and be at a bar or a restaurant or a retail business or a salon or anything like that. So we took all that feedback, and we created this multifaceted parking pilot program.”

People can pay for on-street parking with coins, a pay station, or the ParkMobile app. Street parking isn’t allowed from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., and vehicles cannot park on the street for more than two hours.

The fee for parking at an expired meter is $10.

Drivers can pay for parking on the ramps by using a pay station or the ParkMobile app. Drivers using the ParkMobile app will be able to park in a ramp for one hour a day for free.

People who purchase parking passes will have the option of buying an annual pass instead of a quarterly pass and save 10 percent. The passes will be prorated for six months and go on sale on June 21.

Also, starting June 1, the Swan Parking Lot and the Cloverleaf Parking Lot will require a ‘C’ pass instead of the more expensive ‘A’ pass.

“We put a lot of thought into this. And we wanted to make sure that we addressed all the concerns, at least in some way, somehow, a component of it. There are so many different varieties of needs and wants in the parking system. And to create a one size fits all solution just isn’t possible.”

St. Cloud will leave 10 dedicated curbside pickup locations near restaurants so customers can get in and out without having to pay to park.

Hodel says St. Cloud is adding more signs downtown to help people navigate the new parking restrictions.

“We’re creating some additional signage kind of at the gateway, so the downtown areas with those key information pieces about the free parking and the ramps, and then the payment required on the on-street and surface lots.”

Submitted by City of St. Cloud

St. Cloud Community Safety Officers will have the discretion to issue tickets or warnings in June while people adjust to the new parking rules.

Hodel says at the end of the trial period on December 31. The St. Cloud City Council will decide if changes need to be made or if the new parking rules will be permanent.

Our ultimate goal from the start is to address the concern with business owners saying there really isn’t a lot of convenient free on-street parking available.”

The pilot parking program was announced during the mayor’s State of the City address and is designed to get more people to use the city’s five downtown parking ramps.

St. Cloud has 3,500 parking spaces downtown. Of those, 585 are considered on-street parking, with another 2,000 spots in parking ramps and the remaining 915 spaces in parking lots.

Hodel says it costs St. Cloud about $1.45 million a year to maintain downtown parking spaces.

St. Cloud is looking for feedback on the new parking regulations, and you can submit that information to stcloudparking@ci.stcloud.mn.us

For all of the new parking changes, click here.