For two months, drivers in St. Paul’s Highland Park and Payne-Phalen neighborhoods will be allowed to park on one side of the street only and expected to switch sides weekly.
The weekly, alternate side parking restrictions will run from Feb. 2 through April 12 as part of a pilot study of new ways to manage citywide snow removal operations. If successful, St. Paul Public Works and the mayor’s office may institute the restrictions citywide in winters to come. Ticketing and towing won’t begin until Feb. 17, allowing about two weeks for drivers to get up to speed after the pilot program gets underway.
The goal is to always maintain enough room for snow plows to keep streets safe and passable during the winter, rather than having to guess at whether coming snow will pile onto already accumulated snowfall and create enough hazard to suddenly merit temporary parking restrictions during a snow emergency. St. Paul Public Works officials announce snow emergencies hand in hand with the mayor, and complaints — that they called one too early, too late, or that plows were slow to reach certain streets and didn’t finish the job because of parked cars in the way — are common.
Still, the two chosen neighborhoods encompass “a variety of opportunities and challenges” for snow operations, said Lisa Hiebert, a spokesperson for Public Works. “They’re not huge pilot areas. They’re a few blocks by a few blocks. We’re trying to look at how we do signs, how we do operations. We’re really gathering a lot of data.”
That data will be shared with private consultants for a thorough look at the outcome, and Hiebert called it “highly likely” Public Works will test the program again next winter in a different area before rolling the restrictions out citywide.
“We’re going to have to do another pilot, probably next snow season, and work really closely with the residents and the businesses to see how this is impacting them,” she said.
Additional plowing
St. Paul Public Works Director Sean Kershaw said in a written statement that the city is exploring ways to perform additional plowing on residential side streets during the winter months without adding significant staff or equipment, and one-sided parking bans keep two-thirds of the street open to plows and emergency vehicles at all times.
Kershaw said the city also needs to adjust to changing winter weather conditions that include an increase of rain and freezing rain, as well as larger temperature swings throughout the season, which can create more ice.
Enforcing existing parking rules and snow emergency rules would also lend itself to better snow removal, and city officials said addressing compliance issues will be part of their strategy. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter announced the city’s intent to experiment with one-sided parking bans during his state of the city address last March.
“We’re talking about maybe making snow emergencies obsolete,” Carter said at the time.
How it will work
One-sided street parking is not without precedent. In Duluth, alternate-side street parking is in effect year-round, and vehicles must be moved every 24 hours. Rochester maintains similar rules from Nov. 1 to April 1.
In late winter 2023, both St. Paul and Minneapolis instituted a temporary one-sided parking ban on residential streets following near-record snowfalls that had left streets difficult for emergency vehicles to access. The ban ran from March 10 to March 29.
Here’s how the parking rules will work in the test areas of Payne-Phalen and Highland Park:
Depending upon what date the opening Sunday of each week lands on, weeks will be dubbed “even” (Feb. 2, Feb. 16, March 2, March 16, March 30) or “odd” (Feb. 9, Feb. 23, March 9, March 23, April 6). During even weeks, vehicles must park on the side of the street with even-numbered addresses, which is typically the south and east sides. During odd weeks, vehicles must park on the side of the street with odd-numbered addressed, typically the north and west sides.
Sundays will be changeover days. Drivers must move their cars to the other side of the street between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. Sunday.
Pilot areas
The Payne-Phalen neighborhood’s pilot area will span Maryland Avenue to the north, Desoto Street to the east, Case Avenue to the south and Mississippi Street to the west. As a result of its bike lanes, Arkwright Street has no parking on the odd side of the street at any time. During designated odd-weeks, parking on the even side of Arkwright Street will be allowed during the day, but there will be no parking overnight from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Arkwright will be signed accordingly, according to Public Works.
The Highland Park’s neighborhood pilot area will cover Ford Parkway to the north, Snelling Avenue to the east, Montreal Avenue to the south, and Fairview Avenue to the west. On Ford Parkway and Montreal Avenue, parking will be allowed on both sides during the day, but the weekly alternating overnight parking schedule will apply from 10 p.m.to 6 a.m.
Both streets will be signed accordingly, according to Public Works.
Vehicles parked on the wrong side of the street during the pilot study will receive informational flyers and maps through Feb. 16, but can expect to be ticketed and possibly towed after that. If a snow emergency is declared, nothing changes within the study areas — drivers should continue to abide by alternating weekly restrictions as current snow emergency rules will not apply to them.
Parking maps and other details will be posted online at stpaul.gov/NewSnow.
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