NEW ULM — The New Ulm Planning Commission is preparing to discuss solutions to alleviate downtown parking.

The commissioners and staff have discussed parking in the downtown General Business (B-3) District before, and two issues are up for consideration. The first is how to provide sufficient parking for customers, employees and residents in the downtown area. The second is, if a property lacks sufficient space to accommodate additional off-street parking, where and how would parking be provided for potential occupants?

Currently there are no parking requirements for permitted uses in the B-3 zone. New dwelling units in the B-3 zone are allowed by conditional use permit and are required to have 1.5 parking stalls per unit.

The commission will be presented with potential parking changes that could allow more downtown dwelling units. Options include using or creating city leased parking for apartments in city lots, altering parking regulations to allow parking in the south mall parking lot, or allowing overnight parking on Minnesota Street, or parking policy changes, such as allowing leased parking to be assigned to an apartment unit.

Another items to consider is changing on-street parking from parallel to angled on First North Street between North Minnesota Street and North Broadway and Second North Street between North German and North Broadway.

The commission will also discuss establishing regulations allowing interim use permits as part of land use regulations in the city code. An interim use permit is a temporary use of a property until a particular date, a particular event or until zoning regulations no longer permit.

An interim permit is different from a conditional use permit, as an interim permit can be limited to a time period. Interim permits are commonly used for short-term rentals and other businesses of temporary nature.

The city council requested the planning commission consider this type of permit.

The Planning Commission meeting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the City Hall Chambers.