Downtown La Crosse about to lose a lot of parking spaces

Riverside ramp construction to add spaces will first take them

There seems to be a constant shortage of parking in downtown La Crosse because of ongoing construction.

It’s about to get a lot worse.

Construction is getting ready to begin on the Riverside parking ramp that will add a couple hundred parking spaces.

But the project won’t be done for a year.

And, while that’s going on, floors below in the ramp will go offline, along with parking on the streets around it and under the Cass St. bridge and nearby alleys. Therefore, around 350 parking spaces will be lost.

The city is considering a number of solutions for the parking space shortfall.

It could change some two-hour parking zones to 12 hours, or ask to use spaces owned by First Supply, Xcel Energy or the Chamber of Commerce.  

Another suggestion is to oversell monthly leases in the current ramps, because so many current spaces tend to go unused during a day.  There’s not a clear picture when some decision on the parking shortage will be made.