Central Huron Mayor Says Council Is Ready To Address Parking Issues in Clinton

by Bob Montgomery

Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn says council has received the results of a consultants study on the parking issues in downtown Clinton.

Ginn says there's a lot to it and council has made the decision to address the problem in small bites. There are two situations they're going to look at now. “One is the vacant lot across from the town hall. Plans call for two floors of residential units to go in there, so up to eight apartments, and they don't have parking areas for them. And the other one is on Isaac Street. It's the short part that's one way and historically they did park there. So, we're going to enter into negotiations with both of them and there will be a fee for leasing out the parking spots, but we don't want to get in the way of development or make it difficult for our landlords, so we'll try to negotiate something with them.”

The parking for the people on Isaac Street would continue to be on Isaac Street because it's a one way street, and the snowplows only plow the snow in one direction, so they can make that work there. The parking lot for the people across from the town hall will be east of New Orleans Pizza, across from the Dollarama. Ginn says snow removal is their biggest concern and that lot is big enough that they should be able to maneuver around the leased out parking spots.

Ginn points out there's currently a shortage of housing and an extreme shortage of apartments or rental units of any kind so they have to try and work with developers and try and come up with a solution that works for everybody.