IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) — Downtown Idaho Falls Development leadership got an earful Thursday afternoon, August 7, over a plan to start charging for parking. About 30 merchants from the downtown area spoke their minds at a packed meeting this afternoon.
The meeting started at the Downtown Development Corporation’s office but had to be moved to the nearby Samoa Club, due to the number of merchants who wanted to voice their concerns about a plan to charge for parking.
The majority of the business owners and building owners expressed they felt “blindsided” by the announced plans and “would love to have had conversations before it got to this point.”
The Idaho Falls Downtown Development Corporation announced plans last week to implement a new paid parking system to increase turnover and parking availability downtown, using an app called PARK SMARTER. They planned on bringing the system to the Business Improvement District in two phases. The first phase is scheduled to start in October 2025.
Today, they seemed to walk things back a bit.
“Nothing is law yet. We are an agent of the city, and so we receive information and cannot do anything without permission of the city. So we are an advocate and an ally first and foremost, and we want to hear you,” Downtown Development Corporation Treasurer Brandi Newton told the gathered merchants.
Business owners brought up numerous reasons they think parking fees would be a bad idea, ranging from difficulties with technology and fears that the change would drive people away from the downtown area.
But the overarching sentiment was simply put by Amanda Poitevin, owner of Winnie & Mo’s Bookshop: “Business owners should have been consulted about this a lot more.”
As for the Downtown Development Corporation, Executive Director Kerry Hammon stated that the communication with business owners was “what we needed.” Moving forward, Hammond says they plan on addressing business owner concerns over the next several days.
“We are going to talk to the board members next… continuing our conversations, our board of directors have been out on the street going into the businesses and talking to them, over the last week getting additional input, we’re going to continue those communication meetings and whatnot,” said Hammond.
