Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Downtown parking concerns from residents and businesses was a large focus of Monday night’s meeting of the Howell City Council.

Well-known, Howell-based Artist Kat Markovich, aka Kat McButterfly, lives in a downtown apartment above a business and has been parking in the lot behind Cleary’s as instructed by her landlord for roughly the past two years. She said she and others have now begun receiving tickets.

Other residents and business owners echoed frustrations, with the different lime limits on lots and having to move their vehicles all the time. Another issue voiced was employees having nowhere to park, and again having to move vehicles.

Markovich asserted that within a two-block radius; there is 2-hour, 4-hour, and 8-hour parking. She brought up the concept of parking meters and annual passes for residents – saying it’s needed if the City wants people to come downtown to walk, shop and support local businesses.

Another downtown building owner stated he felt it was “disingenuous” of the City to not provide resident parking.

Parking has long been deemed a “work-in progress” for many cities and municipalities.

Some Council members and staff commented during the meeting that the City has been working over time to address parking problems – citing the lot over by the new Fire & Ice Depot District Project and Parking Lot #10 – as well as the soon-to-be-constructed Snedicor’s Lot.

Mayor Nikolas Hertrich told WHMI he appreciates that there was lots of input from residents about parking concerns downtown. For individuals who live above businesses, he said there are some challenges being able to access parking close to their homes – and he “completely understood”.

As a Council, Hertrich said they are interested in seeing what kind of solutions they can come up with – acknowledging that parking has been a concern. He said as Councilman Schlittler pointed out, there has been quite a bit of work these past couple of years to increase parking throughout the City.

Hertrich said he really does appreciate the feedback from residents, noting they only know about issues when they’re informed of them and “it was good to see a full house”. He said he feels there were good comments and they were well received, and he’s looking forward to coming up with some kind of a solution.

Additionally, safety concerns were raised about some crosswalks in the City and near pedestrian-related crashes, namely in the area on Grand River by Coratti’s. Some suggestions included lighting the crosswalks, but any approvals fall under MDOT jurisdiction.

Also discussed - issues with continued lengthy delays at the CSX railroad crossings that cause significant traffic back-ups throughout the City.