Kicking parking troubles to the curb

The people of Bozeman will have the opportunity to speak in a series of virtual public meetings to address parking issues in the downtown and residential areas of the city this month.

Meetings took place on Monday, Jan. 25, and will continue on Thursday, Jan. 28, and Wednesday, Feb. 3. The city wants to hear from the public before moving forward on plans to revamp its Downtown Strategic Management Plan, which hasn’t been updated for five years. The first meeting will focus on the MSU and Bozeman High School residential parking districts, the second meeting will focus on residential parking around downtown and the third meeting will focus on managing parking near and on E Main St.

Interim Parking Program Representative Mike Veselik said, “We want parking to be the 10th, 20th, or 30th thing people are thinking about when they’re coming home or going downtown.” He hopes the meetings will let the city know, “What challenges the residents are facing. What residents are feeling.”

In March 2020, the city approved a plan for permit-only parking in high-traffic areas to cut down on parking spillover in residential neighborhoods. However, the permits have not been introduced, and the idea faced a lot of pushback because local renters and homeowners would need to pay for such permits and would be limited as to how many they could buy.  The plan also proposed commuter permits for those who work downtown but struggle to find parking. The plan was called back for review this year, as locals criticized the plan’s two permits per-household policy and whether parking in downtown Bozeman, near the MSU campus and the high school campus even need intervention.

According to Veselik, as Bozeman continues to grow and expand, more active management is needed to try to find a way for people to get downtown. “We don’t want people avoiding downtown because they can’t find a place to park,” Veselik explained. 

According to the city website, “The session will begin with an overview of parking management strategies… and will use breakout groups for facilitated small group discussion on what’s working well and where we can work to integrate stakeholder’s, needs, interests, and values into future solutions.” Anyone who joins the meeting is required to comment on downtown parking management.

The meetings will be held via Webex. The links to the meetings can be found at https://www.bozeman.net/services/advanced-components/basic-pages/city-events-calendar.