07/21/2020- Marinette’s parking woes- both in the immediate and long-term future- took up much of the conversation at the City’s Civic Affairs, Cemetery, Traffic, and Lights Committee meeting Monday. After briefly discussing exploring a permit parking only ordinance to keep workers from taking up most of the available parking on residential streets, the Committee next turned their attention to whether they need to put measures in place to prevent people from buying up properties in the downtown district and razing the buildings on them to instead construct and sell parking space. While both of these topics require significant further research, Mayor Steve Genisot agreed it’s something they’ll need to figure out sooner rather than later.

Both Marinette Marine and inVenture North have also been actively pursuing parking solutions for the estimated additional 1000 workers the new Naval contract will bring to the local shipyard. Mike Kunesh with inVenture alluded to the possible need for a parking structure to accommodate all those vehicles, but said that’s neither a cheap nor profitable venture.

No definitive action was taken by the Committee regarding city parking Monday, but the conversations are expected to be revisited as more information is gathered by the parties involved.