My name is Mark Bauer, and I am a parking operations specialist for the City of Duluth.  I'll be happy to address some of the items discussed here.

In June 1996, the Duluth City Council passed resolution #96-0446R, which extended the hours of enforcement for parking meters between Lake Avenue and 3rd Avenue East on Superior Street from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.  This change was implemented in response to concerns by nearby businesses that due to the late-night operating hours of other businesses in the area and associated increased parking demand, public parking stalls were often not available for patrons of their establishments between 5:30 p.m. (the standard daily end time of on-street meter enforcement throughout downtown Monday through Saturday) and 9:00 p.m., when the demand eases due to the closing times of many of the businesses.  The altered hours of enforcement in this area have been in effect consistently since 1996, however, and there have been no recent changes to this or any other section of on-street parking downtown with regard to hours of enforcement.

There was, though, an off-street parking change this spring to Lake Place Lot, which is located adjacent to Endion Station in Canal Park, which altered the fee enforcement to 24/7.  This change was made based on demand for turnover of the stalls in the lot and to make the enforcement structure more consistent with the rest of the lots in the Canal Park area.  While the requirement of a fee for parking isn't always the most popular change at the time it is implemented, the primary purpose is to encourage turnover of the parking spaces for the benefit of the public and the business patrons, rather than merely to generate revenue.

Visitors to the surface lots in Canal Park will see signage at the entrance to each lot and near each point of payment.  The signs are light blue and black in color and contain information on rates, hours of enforcement, the location address, and contact information. 

The parking lot next to the Canal Park Brewery is privately owned and operated and not a City of Duluth lot.  It first opened for public parking in August 2012 and is jointly owned by the Canal Park Lodge and the Canal Park Brewery.

Regarding the contract-only status during the daytime at the Irvin and Steam Plant lots, this configuration is in place as part of a large-group arrangement to provide parking for employees of an area business.  These lots were chosen because they were outside the core area of daytime demand in Canal Park; the purpose is to accommodate these employees' parking needs while preserving the more in-demand public parking spaces in central Canal Park for the needs of visitors and business patrons.

If I can answer any further questions, please feel free to follow up with me at (218) 730-5177 or [email protected].