City Council approves measures on downtown parking, alley use

Morrison said there still is the opportunity for those businesses to provide the additional disabled parking on-street rather than off-street.

"I think that's a nice way to try and balance the priorities we're trying to balance," Morrison said.

The issue of alleys was a common theme between both items. Council also approved City Manager Marc Ott to provide options and a timeline for a downtown alley master plan by June 20. Councilwoman Kathie Tovo said she would like to look at the alleys as means to create "more public, more pedestrian, more bicycle-friendly activities" for the public.

"In some cities, they're looking at ways to close down the alleys and make it a green space," Tovo said.

One point of contention between council members over the alleys was whether loading and unloading should be a permissible use in the alleys. Tovo said allowing that use would limit the more creative options she was hoping to explore with the alleys, but Riley said the intention of the alleys was to provide loading and unloading access, and he wanted to make sure the alleys still could be used for that purpose.

"[Alleys] serve a very valuable purpose of being able to ensure we have a convenient place for loading and unloading," he said. "The result is we wind up with fewer places where we're required to do those sorts of things on the street, where they can pose real problems for all kinds of traffic: vehicular, pedestrians and bicycle."