A new parking restriction will be in place on West Campus Drive in Mt. Pleasant by the time Central Michigan University begins its school year in August.
The Mt. Pleasant City Commission approved the traffic control order Monday, which will restrict parking on both sides of West Campus Drive between Preston and Vernon with Pango metered parking.
City Manager Nancy Ridley said West Campus is the only city street adjacent to campus that does not have parking restrictions of some sort.
“What ends up happening is cars will park there and sit there the entire day,” she said. “Both CMU and the Traffic Control Committee have recommended that that street should be consistent with other streets near campus.”
Making this somewhat unique is the fact the city will be using Pango metered parking technology, meaning people would pay by using an app on their smartphones rather than using a traditional meter with coins.
CMU staff is supportive of the parking plan and will enforce the restrictions as part of the city’s parking enforcement agreement with CMU, according to the city.
Ridley said CMU has been using Pango in some of its campus lots for several years and is pleased with the results.
City Commissioners Kathy Ling and Kristin LaLonde both were supportive of using Pango for West Campus Drive, but had concerns about using it in other parts of the city.
Both noted that not everyone has a smartphone.
“Given the population that’s using that section, probably that’s not going to be a big issue,” Ling said. “I will tell you this. I went to a meeting at Warriner, and as I was going into the parking lot, I thought, ‘Oh, I hope they don’t have those. I hope it takes a coin,’ and fortunately, it did.
“While most people now have apps, I think we need to recognize there are places where that would be a problem and that for people who didn’t have a phone, or didn’t have the app, I can see where it would cause quite a bit of consternation. I would hope before we would go to a system like that, somewhere downtown, for example, that we would have some discussion.”
LaLonde agreed.
“I’d like to second those sentiments,” she said. “I think for the people who are probably going to be parking there, I think it would be convenient for them, especially since they are using them elsewhere (on campus). But I do think we need to be aware that we shouldn’t require everyone to have a smartphone in order to park a car in Mt. Pleasant. So just keep an eye on that for the future.
Ridley said using Pango on West Campus Drive will allow the city to avoid the cost of putting in and maintaining traditional meters.
Signs will be installed over the summer and be in place before the start of the Fall Semester.
The commission unanimously approved the traffic control order.
In a separate decision, commissioners also approved a temporary traffic control order to place “3 Hour Parking” signs on the east side of Franklin Street between Mosher and Chippewa.
The temporary order will be evaluated in a few weeks and will likely be before the board for a decision on making it permanent at the July 9 meeting.
The Franklin Street traffic control order does not include any Pango technology.