Parking ramp gates will stay off, unlimited free parking to end

La Crosse parking gates to return eventually

First Watergate, then deflategate, now parking-gate.

The ticket gates in the downtown La Crosse parking ramps have mustered up all sorts of drama.

Vandals have ruined them time and time again. Drivers have gone through them. And, of course, they make people pay to park in the ramps, which might be the most controversial part of the entire issue.

Wednesday, the city parking board decided to keep the gates off until Aug. 1, but will eliminate the unlimited free parking that has left hourly parking spots clogged in the ramps.

Police will enforce three hour limits from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. Unlimited free parking will continue weekdays after 6 p.m. and on weekends.

The gates came down toward the end of February, just before the city hired Jim Flottmeyer as the city’s parking utility coordinator – a new position created to manage the parking woes.

Flottmeyer has been on the job a month. In that month, the city granted the La Crosse Police Dept. authority over the four downtown parking ramps – meaning, to some degree, that Flottmeyer will now answer to the police dept.

Since the gates came down, the city hasn’t charged for parking in the ramps in the hourly spots which has led to many permit holders simply moving to those spots, leaving few for downtown visitors to use.

Regardless, Aug. 1 is the big date now set by the city to, still, figure out how to enforce parking without it costing money to pay for damaged gates. The same dilemma the city had on Feb. 25 when the gates initially came down. The ramps brought in around $13,000 in February. 

“The pay system, hardware, software, how do we best solve the gate problem?” Flottmeyer asked at Wednesday’s board meeting.  Presumably, there will be answers by Aug. 1.