Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Downtown Action Team member Cindy Winters discusses downtown parking solutions with the attendees at the Hot Topics Luncheon held Friday at the New Ulm Country Club.

NEW ULM — Downtown improvements were the topic of discussion Friday at the New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce’s Hot Topics luncheon.

The Downtown Action Team was one of the first groups developed during 2016’s Community Visioning event. Work in New Ulm’s downtown was viewed as vitally important to the community. The Downtown Action Team merged with the Minnesota Mainstream program, which was doing identical work.

Chamber Retail Services Specialist Cara Knauf started with a presentation on the Downtown Assessment. This is intended as the biggest project of 2019. The Downtown Assessment is a new program under the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (PAM).

Knauf gave a walk through of the Downtown Assessment, which is expected to take several months. The information gathered from the assessment will be used by other groups. New Ulm will be the first community to go through this assessment.

A PAM representative will come to New Ulm and interview residents for up to three weeks to determine what people want out of the community. The representative will be out in the community, rather than attending meetings to get a more accurate understanding of New Ulm’s needs. Knauf said the focus will be determine why people love New Ulm.

The assessment will include a report and GIS Map. Knauf said the GIS Map could be updated with new information over time.

The cost of this assessment will be covered through mini-grant funds and other sources. The city of New Ulm is not being asked to contribute.

“It is going to give a lot of information on what people want,” Knauf said. “What is important to our community is not just number data. Its opinions, thoughts as well as facts.”

Cindy Winters presented on downtown parking lots. Winter said a survey of downtown businesses revealed parking was a concern. New people to the community and visitors often struggle to find parking.

The action team is working to make parking easier to find. The first solution is to give the parking lots in downtown New Ulm names. At this time the lots are numbered, but have no names. The plan is to create signage with the lot names to assist visitors.

The lot names were created based on location. The draft name for the nine lots were 4th N. Parkplatz, 3rd N. Parkplatz, 2nd N. & German Parkplatz, 2nd N. & Broadway Parkplatz, 1st N. Parkplatz, Center Parkplatz “A”, Center Parkplatz “B”, Center Parkplatz “C” and 1st S. Parkplatz.

Park and Recreation Director Tom Schmitz asked if it were possible for the parking lot names to have more specific location names. He suggested naming the lot for the intersection.

City Manager Chris Dalton agreed the intersection name approach worked. He had done a similar project in other communities and the lots were named for the nearest intersection to make them easier to locate.

The action team wanted to avoid naming the lots for landmarks, because visitors or newcomers to the community might not know those landmarks.

The three Center Parkplatz lots were another concern. The three different lots were labeled A, B and C. It was pointed out that Center Parkplatz “B” was for leased parking only. It was suggested no sign be created for this lot since anyone seeking leased parking would likely go to the city first.

Another concern was employee parking. People working downtown need to park, which reduces the parking for customers.

George Glotzbach said this has been a problem in New Ulm since 1930. Employees parking in front of the business was a problem when he was a boy and no solution has ever been found.

Police Chief David Borchert said that was the reason for the timed parking. He said the police receive comments about employees who don’t park in front of their business, but do park in front of other businesses. Improving public transit in the city was suggested.

Winters said another project related to the park benches and tables on Minnesota Street. With the snow gone the bench would have historic plaques attached and the table would be wrapped.

The action team wants to improve downtown for pedestrians and bikers. Winter said walkers and bikers statistically spend more money in the downtown district.

The Downtown Action team meets at noon on third Friday of the month at the Chamber Offices.