DeKalb Times

At its Feb. 13 meeting, the DeKalb city council amended some of the city's ordinances regarding off-street parking.

“So we're just trying to be flexible to recognize that we don't have all the answers,” City Manager Bill Nicklas said. “And as people's tastes change and as the way people arrive and leave from some of these facilities changes, we ought to be able to adapt to it. That's what we're doing here.”

The council uploaded a livestream of its public meeting to the city’s YouTube channel.

Council was presented with an ordinance amending some of the parking regulations as a part of the 2022 strategic plan review for parking throughout the city. The approval of the Comprehensive Plan meant that some of the parking regulations would receive revisions. There were quite a few revisions for code as a part of this ordinance, none of which were meant to make parking more restrictive or difficult to comply with for residents or businesses.

Some of these changes would allow for outdoor areas designated for storage to be paved with alternate materials (instead of just concrete or asphalt, allow for commercial properties like apartments or fraternities to have their parking requirements within 300 feet of the principal building if they cannot provide it any closer, reduce some of the parking setback requirements per city engineer’s approval, provide more flexibility on how to fill the landscaping requirements in and around parking lots, reduce the total amount of parking spaces required for restaurants from 1 for each employee plus 1 per two seats, to 1 for each employee plus 1 per three seats, and finally allow for parking space sharing between two neighboring businesses if they do not have the same open hours or peak traffic times.

The council members felt these changes would be beneficial for residents and businesses alike, while maintaining environmental responsibilities and infrastructure systems. They are happy to be using the amount of paved space as efficiently as possible, making it more financially conservative for residents, businesses, and the city as a whole.

The council also discussed the impact video gaming establishments have in the city.

The council will meet again at 6 p.m. on Monday at the DeKalb Public Library at 309 Oak St.