The proposal last month to double the cost of parking meters and eliminate the two-hour free parking zones in downtown Jamestown wasn’t met with support from some downtown business owners and local residents.

However, a new proposal from Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist may soon be met with more acceptance.

During a recent Jamestown City Council work session meeting, Sundquist discussed the new proposal, calling it a “compromise” to his first proposal. The mayor proposed still eliminating the two-hour free parking spaces and increasing meter fees, but will also give people a free 20 minutes of parking.

“We listened to the feedback from business owners and council members, and we started to look at what other cities did after moving away from free parking,” Sundquist told The Post-Journal. “One of the things we came up with was something done in Boise, Idaho, that they did when they moved to a different way to do metered spaces. When they got rid of their free zone area they made the decision to make every metered space free for 20 minutes.”

Sundquist said during the COVID-19 pandemic, many business owners asked city officials for short-term free parking areas because of the increase in curbside pick-up because of the limitations placed on restaurant capacity. Sundquist said his new proposal will allow for people to just “run in and run out” of downtown businesses without them worrying about feeding the meter.

“If you’re coming downtown to just run into the bank or you have a quick appointment, we will give them 20 minutes for free,” he said. “We want to let the public know we hear their concerns and want a compromise to improve what we have in the city.”

As for how the new 20-minute parking will be enforced, Sundquist said the city’s parking enforcement officials are moving to a digital method that scans license plates instead of chalking tires to determine how long a vehicle has been parked in a space. He said the digital enforcement will allow for a free a 20-minute period for any license plate number either at the beginning or the end of the time used in the parking space.

“We have enough enforcement to manage this and we are testing it out to see how it will look,” Sundquist said about being able to track each vehicle’s 20 minutes of free time. “So far it has worked pretty well.”

Sundquist said if the 20-minute free parking proposal is implemented, however, being able to have that time period at the beginning or at the end of use would be the short-term solution. He said once all parking meters downtown are eventually transformed into smart meters, the free 20-minutes will only be implemented at the beginning of the parking space use. Next year, city officials plan to install new smart meters that will account for almost half of the meters in the downtown area.

“Once we go to electric meters, at the beginning of the parking time would be the 20 minutes,” Sundquist said.

During the work session, several members of the council questioned, even with the new compromised proposal, if increasing the cost of parking and adding more metered spaces downtown is the right move now.

“Is this the right time to move in this direction to adding fees or an increase,” said Anthony Dolce, city council president. “I like the idea. I still think it needs some tweaking.”

Tamu Graham-Reinhardt, At-Large councilwoman, agreed with Dolce that the new proposal is good, but is worried about the timing because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People need as much relief as they can get right now,” she said.