GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — Parking rules in downtown Green Bay are expected to change early next year in order to better accommodate food trucks.
It comes after Cole Ductan, the owner of Bay Burger Food Truck, raised a stir about parking rules in a social media post earlier this fall. Ductan had been ticketed for parking on Washington Street after midnight, and while the new rules still won’t allow that, there is a compromise, which was hashed out during a meeting between Ductan and city officials.
“The police explained why [the Washington Street parking prohibition] needs to stay there, so their officers can have a clear line of sight if there is something going on, or if there’s a fight,” Ductan told WTAQ.
There were a series of late-night brawls that broke out several years ago between customers leaving the bars on Washington Street late at night. That led the city’s Common Council to forbid late night parking on that stretch of road so that police could easily access and observe it.
The new rules would allow trucks to park in an area of Cherry Street currently zoned for busses, limos, and taxis near the Packers Heritage Trail statues.
“We are going to bring forward a modification to that zone on the west side of Cherry Street,” David Hansen, a traffic engineer with the City of Green Bay, said Tuesday. “It’s now a matter of getting it through the parking commission and ultimately through the city council for approval.”
That’s expected early next year.
The change is expected to improve the health of the city’s food truck industry, which has long sought the foot traffic that comes with the late-night bar crowd.
“I’m happy with it,” Ductan said. “It’s not a moving-mountains win, but it is a small win.”
Hansen says since all sides, including parking enforcement, agree, he expects the new rules will have no problem passing in the common council.
