By Matt Mackinder
Clarkston News Editor

As parking continues to be an issue in the City of the Village of Clarkston, city officials are taking action to come up with solutions.
A new parking advisory committee was recently formed, something Clarkston Mayor Eric Haven sees as a benefit to both the city and its residents.
“Clarkston has two needs that paid parking addresses: (1) the need to raise revenue to pay for street repairs and (2) the need to assure available parking for retail and restaurant customers when it is needed, mostly three days per week (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.,” said Haven. “Since city council has now implemented paid parking in the Depot Road lot, the parking advisory committee, made up of both resident and business representatives, will now assist our city manager, Jonathan Smith, in making decisions which take into consideration the needs of both residents and businesses.”
After council’s March 13 approval of the formation of the parking advisory committee, the committee met on March 15. Two additional business owners requested to be on the committee, bringing the membership to the following: Bryan Coudret (2 South Brunch House), Robert Esshaki (Rudy’s), Kevin Harrison (KH Homes and resident), Erich Lines (Union Joints and resident), Steve Lukens (HealthQuest), Lisa Patercsak (resident) and Maggie Sans (resident).
After discussing some of the key issues including employee parking, permit parking, hours of operations, and enforcement, the committee requested that the launch of paid parking in the Depot Road lot be delayed until June 1 to give the committee time to develop a comprehensive parking recommendation.
“City council is elected by residents to represent their interests,” Haven said. “Our residents love our businesses. Neither businesses nor residents want their taxes raised to fund street repairs. It makes sense that street maintenance now be additionally funded by a small parking charge, $1 per hour after 4 p.m. in the Depot lot, as has been successfully done in the Washington and Main lot. We are blessed to have our town be a destination for many. Because of that influx of outsiders who love Clarkston, each visitor can pay just a little for the parking they use.
“Also, paid parking in the Depot lot will now make paid parking viable in the Washington Management lot across Depot Road, thereby adding many more parking places for visitors and employees (by agreement) formerly unused because the Depot lot was free. Future paid parking needed for the reasons I previously stated can now be approved by council and implemented by our city manager with the help of the parking advisory committee. Paid parking is a management tool to realize the best use of city assets, our streets and lots, for the benefit of everyone, a win-win. The parking advisory committee will help our city manager make good decisions into our bright future.”
One resident Susan Bisio, wrote on her website ClarkstonSecrets.com (The Parking “Advisory” Committee is a Trojan Horse, March 25) that there are still questions to answer.
“The parking advisory committee was supposedly Mayor Eric Haven’s idea,” wrote Bisio. “We were told this would be a small group that would ‘help’ the city manager with some of the thornier issues involved in setting up paid parking in the Depot Road parking lot. To be fair, there really are some things that need to be resolved, which include the hours of parking to accommodate residents who want to use the park during the day as well as how to address the reserved spaces (because not all of the Depot Road parking lot spaces belong to the city).
“It appears to have expanded beyond that into a committee that will likely be used by local businesses to jam their desires down our throats.”

Photo: Matt Mackinder