Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Parking on Shelden Avenue will be changed from one hour to two as part of a change to the city’s parking ordinance approved Wednesday night. The changes also bar reparking within the same block face before 5 p.m. that day.

By GARRETT NEESE

gneese@mininggazette.com

HOUGHTON — Parking changes are coming to downtown Houghton.

After a public hearing Wednesday, Houghton City Council approved changes to its parking ordinance, along with a resolution updating fines for violators and creating several new permit types.

Inside the city’s Central Business District, cars will be able to park for up to two hours without a permit on Shelden Avenue, side streets, city parking lots and city structures. That represents a shift for Shelden Avenue, where the limit had been one hour. The change brings Shelden Avenue in line with the two-hour limits already present for the categories.

When that time limit expires, drivers will no longer be able to repark elsewhere within the same block face — legal parking spaces on both sides of the street and the side streets on a block — until after 5 p.m. or the next calendar day.

In most cases, the violations haven’t come from visitors, City Manager Eric Waara said. More commonly, it’s downtown businesses and their employees. The city adopted language used in a parking ordinance by Wausau, Wisconsin, which had run into similar problems, Waara said.

“There’s a lot of people that feel entitled to do whatever they want, and it finally came to a head, and we said, ‘Well, we could do this about it,'” he said.

A separate resolution set new fines. Reparking in the Central Business District will be $25, as will parking in the compact car space, or tampering with a meter or permit. Fines double after three of the same offense, and triple after the fourth.

The resolution also created three new permits for 24-hour parking: $450 permits for six months (Nov. 1 – Apr 30) or the school year (September to May), and $550 for a full year.

Several city lots downtown don’t have the two-hour time limit, said Police Chief John Donnelly. One is the Grace United Methodist Church parking lot on Montezuma Avenue, of which the city owns half. Closer to the waterfront, there’s a city- and state-owned lot between the Portage Lift Bridge and the Downtowner. There’s also a lot behind the Keweenaw Chamber of Commerce, which is being designated for people who have to leave their car somewhere for an extended period.

Councilor Mike Needham said there’s long been discussion encouraging business owners to have their employees park in one of the longer-term lots where they can park without a permit.

“They could park there and not take up a customer spot,” he said. “It would solve a ton of problems, and it’s just two or three blocks from anything, depends on which one you park in.”

Alan Kiley, owner of Joey’s Seafood in Houghton, asked at Wednesday’s City Council meeting to be able to allow his employees to park closer to the restaurant. The temporary parking places available during the demolition of the parking deck do not have enough lighting, he said. In recent weeks, a number of female employees had told him they did not feel comfortable going back to their cars at night, recounting several incidents of harassment in late hours.

“My girls are scared,” Kiley said. “Over this weekend, it’s gotten a lot worse. The first couple weeks, they weren’t scared … it’s taken a couple of weeks, and I’m starting to get more and more comments from the girls that they are not comfortable.”

Waara said the circuit that powers the lights at Bridgeview Park was temporarily out of service in connection with the teardown of the deck, but would soon be back up.

“Once the conduits go back in and things are powered back up, Bridgeview itself is going to be very bright,” he said. The circuit also includes two lights on the corner by the Ambassador.

Waara and Needham said they would each visit the site after dark Wednesday to look at the lighting situation.

Asked about assaults downtown, Donnelly said the vast majority occur late at night, but are almost entirely between people leaving bars.

In other action, council:

• Approved a $100,000 revolving loan fund request for the Hampton Inn. The money will go to the remaining buildout of the bar and food service area on the hotel’s seventh floor. The five-year loan carries an interest rate of 4.25%. The revolving loan fund committee recommended the city council approve the request.

• Scheduled a public hearing for Aug. 9 for a grant application through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to aid in the purchase of a new loader. Houghton would likely be eligible for about $124,000, or half the cost of a new loader. The city would provide a match through its equipment fund.

“That’s one of the more critical pieces of equipment in the fleet up there for snow removal in the wintertime,” Waara said. “We have to keep rotating through those, because they get a lot of use.”

• Gave an informal recommendation to Waara to apply for a state grant for improvements on Dee Stadium. Work would include a 4,000-square-foot, two-floor addition on the west end of the building, including an elevator to the second floor and smaller community rooms. Other improvements would include HVAC upgrades to the ballroom and a dehumidifier for the roof area. The Planning Commission had also signaled its approval of pursuing the grant at its meeting Tuesday.

• Went into closed session to discuss the purchase of real property. The council took no action upon returning.