Midway council weighs parking overhaul: shared lots, meters, local passes and a trolley

Parking pressure and circulation on and around Main Street was a central part of Thursday’s work session, where staff and council discussed a suite of options ranging from shared parking lots to metered on-street spaces and a community trolley.

Staff recommended encouraging combined public parking lots so businesses need fewer individual stalls and highlighted the Mercantile-area lot as an example of shared use. The staff member said re-striping and using nearby parcels could add roughly 37–59 spaces depending on configuration; council members discussed angled vs. parallel striping and snow-clearing implications.

Why it matters: Council members cited employee parking as a key driver of daytime shortages and proposed designating certain lots for employee parking or issuing employee passes. Metered parking and a locals’ pass were raised repeatedly as behavior-management tools; one council member proposed a plate-based annual locals pass at a nominal fee (a $10-per-car example was floated) to allow residents to park without feeding meters.

The trolley idea also gained early traction. Destination Midway (the local business alliance) is discussing a trolley to link the downtown, resorts and nearby lodging; council members suggested exploring grants and a quarter-cent tax option as potential funding sources, but stressed more analysis is needed.

What’s next: Staff will refine parking-lot designs and stall estimates, study a pilot for employee/local passes and metering enforcement costs, and return with options — including potential grant sources — for council review. The council emphasized that any reduction in required private parking must be paired with confirmed shared- or public-parking capacity before code changes are adopted.