Muncie to build 20-space parking lot to support United Daycare expansion at Saint Lawrence Church

On July 16 the Muncie Board of Public Works and Safety approved a parking license agreement that will let the city build a 20-space parking lot south of Saint Lawrence Catholic Church to serve an expansion of United Daycare, Mayor Dan Ridenour said.

The agreement matters because United Daycare has a waiting list and expanded its facility to accept more children; city officials said employee parking was lost as part of that expansion and the new lot will restore spaces needed for staff. “We finally have this agreement,” Mayor Dan Ridenour said during the meeting.

Ridenour told the board the Lafayette Diocese owns the parcel identified for parking and that the city and diocesan attorneys negotiated the license for roughly four months. The city expects to construct the lot with city crews this fall after related road work is finished; Ridenour said the project is “about $50,000 for us to put it in.” He said the spaces—about 20—are intended for employee parking though the church will be able to use the lot as well.

Board members approved the parking license agreement by voice vote; the mayor said he had not yet signed the final documents. The board gave no detailed breakdown of the $50,000 estimate at the meeting and did not record a roll-call vote.

The agreement follows the city’s prior efforts to find alternative park space and to work with the neighborhood association; Ridenour said the neighborhood declined relocating park space, which led to the plan to reconfigure existing parking for United Daycare’s expansion. The mayor also said the city offered a grant match for the daycare in a separate application that ultimately did not receive award funding, and that the daycare raised additional funds to move forward on its own.

The board did not specify a contractor beyond using city employees, and the timeline provided at the meeting tied construction to completion of nearby road work.