St. Charles library to allow public parking in lot after hours

The city of St. Charles and St. Charles Public Library have approved a shared parking agreement to allow the library lot to be used for public parking during off hours on Fridays and Saturdays.

According to the agreement, the library’s 190-space parking lot at 1 S. Sixth Ave. now is available for public parking from 8 p.m to 2 a.m. Fridays and 5 p.m. to 4 a.m. Saturdays.

The library board approved the agreement June 12 and City Council members approved the agreement in a unanimous vote at their June 17 meeting.

The city recently conducted a study to assess parking space inventory, which reported that on weekends about 80% of downtown parking spaces are occupied. That is close to what is considered practical capacity. An interactive map of the current downtown parking inventory is available here.

One of the study’s suggestions for future improvements was to expand the parking supply by entering into shared parking agreements with some of the downtown property owners to allow for the use of privately owned lots as public parking during designated times.

Under the agreement, the city will pay the library 7% of all maintenance costs related to snow removal, pavement patching, sealing and marking in the public parking area on an annual basis.

Reimbursement costs are expected to be about $2,000 a year and are not to exceed $10,000 a year and the city will be responsible for installing and maintaining additional signage.

Both the city and the library have the right to terminate the three-year agreement at any time with 90 days notice.