Council member hopes to block La Crosse police plan for paid street parking

It’s not often do you see La Crosse city council members to unusual lengths to block city department programs.

But, one member wants to push back a bit on police plans for paid street parking.

Council member Justice Weaver feels this is an unusual situation. He represents the largely college district around the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

His main beef with the plan is the lack of communication with which the plan was developed.

“We didn’t really get to talk about it and a lot of people on our committee don’t really want the pay-to-park program,” Weaver said.

Police have been given approval by the city’s public works board to start a paid street parking pilot program around UW-L and Western Technical College.

But Weaver has introduced a measure that would overturn the the program.

He says college students are frustrated with it for a couple of reasons.

“One, I guess they don’t know much about it,” Weaver said, “and two, they weren’t involved in the process of it happening.”

A city council committee votes on Weaver’s plan tonight. The paid street parking program was set to start within weeks.