Despite frustration, committee approves rules clarification to help police enforce parking in downtown La Crosse

City will better define two-hour, block-face parking zones, among other things.

The frustration expressed by many over proposed tweaks to La Crosse parking rules may not be warranted.

La Crosse assistant police chief Rob Abraham blamed the media for mischaracterizing his proposals on, among other things, two-hour free parking downtown.

Abraham blamed the La Crosse Tribune for leading astray the public on the intention of the ordinance. In a highly unusual move, the Tribune reporter criticized by Abraham, Chris Baldus, defended himself during a public hearing at a city council committee Monday night.

The committee approved some parking rules adjustments and the measure moves on to the full council next week.  

Approved is new language in the city rules that govern, among other things, those two-hour, free-parking zones.

Abraham told those in attendance the changes are only meant to clarify what is on the books already – especially on what it means to park on a “single-block face.” 

“The way that the council or the parking utility board try to define this block face, I will tell you, is impossible for my staff to enforce,” Abraham said. “We were having a hard time, if not an impossible time, enforcing the way the current ordinance reads.”

The changes will make it more enforceable and easier to understand.

“The current ordinance is more restrictive,” Abraham said. “The proposed ordinance is less restrictive. ‘

“The current ordinance prohibits parking in the same block face twice. The new ordinance prohibits parking in the same block face twice but clearly explains that.”

Police proposals have been given the thumbs up by a downtown business group.

Two-hour parking downtown could soon be enforced easier with new technology, police say. But the clarification comes in the midst of parking changes about to happen downtown, including business groups talking with the city about ending free parking on downtown streets within a year.

It also comes after the discovery that the city is owed over $355,000 in unpaid parking tickets for just the last three years. Police have requested vehicle registration suspensions from the Wisconsin Dept. of Motor Vehicles related to those unpaid fines – for Wisconsin drivers only.