Planners will set up a joint meeting with Village of Clarkston City Council and the streets committee to discuss pay-to-park in city lots and other issues.
“The time to address this is now – we’ve talked about this long enough,” said Planning Commissioner Frank Schoebel at the July 18 meeting. “We should act on it in some manner.”
Resident Steve Percival requested the issue of paid parking in city lots be placed on the planning commission’s agenda.
“We’re paying for the maintenance of those city parking lots – this could recoup some of those costs and hopefully give you guys a little bit more funding to develop and plan some different things for the village,” Percival said. “I’d like for us to look at whether we are in violation of some ordinance, not charging fees to the restaurants and new businesses supposed to be creating their own parking. If they’re not creating their own parking, there are ordinances out there saying they should be charged a fee.”
The city has a parking deferment zone in downtown, created by ordinance. Businesses are required to provide parking, but if they’re in the zone, they can pay a fee instead.
This hasn’t been enforced with recent developments, and it’s too late to start now, said property owner Ed Adler.
“Now that you’ve let things go, they’d take you to court,” Adler said.
Planning Commissioner Michael Sabol, who also serves on City Council, said they need to wait for completion of a parking study by Traffic Improvement Association, which was commissioned last spring.
“We need to know what the total impact is – that will come from the study,” Sabol said. “I still believe there’s enough parking, even with the two restaurants. We have talked about this a number of times. People will always find a place to park. They do during Concerts in the Park. I don’t want to start getting people to turn away and not come to businesses because they have to pay for parking.”

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