NEW ULM — The New Ulm Planning Commission on Thursday discussed possible solutions to alleviate downtown parking.

No official action was taken during this meeting. Community Development Director David Schnobrich said the intent of this discussion was to be proactive rather than reactive.

Two parking issues were up for consideration. The first was how to provide sufficient parking for customers, employees and residents in the downtown area. The second was, if a property lacks sufficient space to accommodate additional off-street parking, where and how would parking be provided for potential occupants?

Several recent snow emergency events have highlighted the need for off-street parking in the downtown area. The Street Department has needed to find the owners of vehicles before plowing the street.

Schnobrich said 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 was 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 item 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 city has 17 parking spaces available for lease. These spaces are leased on a flat monthly rate.

Commissioner Rodney Karnitz suggested advertising these locations, as many resident might be unaware of available stalls.

Commissioner Jeff Gulden said the regulation prohibiting parking from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. on North and South Minnesota Street was antiquated, at least on the weekends.

“It gets to be cumbersome when people are parking downtown and they want to leave their car sit overnight,” Gulden said. “There trying to do the right thing and they get a ticket.”

Part of the problem with making changes to parking was the uncertainity over vacant buildings. If parking spaces near empty buildings are leased to downtown residents, any future business moving into the building will have less parking for customers.

Commissioner Larry Mack said it was hard to make changes in advance. The commission decided to make no changes until a formal request was made to the commission or city council.

The commission recommended 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.

Schnobrich said in the past the city has given conditional use permits to mining and grain storage areas, when an interim use permit would be more appropriate.

Commissioner Dena Piotter said she saw no downside to the interim use permit.

Schnobrich said it would add to the city’s toolbox and helps with the permit review process.

The commission agreed to schedule a public hearing at 4:30 p.m. March 28 on the establishment of review procedures and requirements for interim uses.

Cate Macho and Dena Piotter were appointed as new members to the Planning Commission to replace Liza Kukla and Cheryl Meyer.