The Provo City Council has come up with a new parking plan for the North Joaquin neighborhood after some input from students, residents and Brigham Young University.

Despite the running opinion of the City Council in past months, councilman George Stewart said it became clear that commuting students were not the cause of the parking problem in the neighborhood.

"We thought there was a problem with the commuters, but it didn't seem like anyone else agreed with the council on that," he said.

The biggest change to the new parking permit proposal is the hours of enforcement. Parking would be free in the daytime, and permits would be enforced from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. daily, except during the week of Thanksgiving, between Christmas Eve and New Years Day and during BYU graduation.

"The enforcement is now overnight parking," Stewart said. "The main result would be looking for over-occupancy."

Owners of residences would have to have rental licenses to obtain a permit, so dwellings with too many occupants would only be able to receive permits allowed by their license. Stewart said only a certain number of parking spaces are available, and he does not believe there will be enough spots to accommodate for over-occupancy.

Many apartments were built several years ago, when not as much parking was necessary. Students are more affluent now, and more have cars, so these apartments need a means to provide parking for their tenants.

"This parking permit allows them to have legal on-street parking," Stewart said.

Kurt Peterson, neighborhood chairman for the Joaquin area, said he believes the new plan will force landlords in the area to deal with occupancy and parking issues. Previous plans allowed enough permits for 150 percent of the need, while the current plan only allows for 110 percent.

Fewer parking permits will ensure that owners do not get too many permits for their renters.

"I've no doubt it will be effective," Peterson said. "That doesn't mean it won't be painless."

The new permit program will encourage students to shop around more for apartments, Peterson said, and in return will allow the market to do its job.

"Those students are going to have to evaluate every place they want to live," he said. "Do they have parking or not? And that's a new concept."

Stewart said the changes also come with BYU's concerns in mind. The university wanted to make sure that students who live in the area have parking, and nightly enforcement may do just that. The main concern was the safety of the students who may have to park several blocks from home because of overcrowding.

Carri Jenkins, BYU spokeswoman, said the university did not have any involvement with the city in devising the new plan. The university simply provided housing information to help the city understand where the students are living in the area.

"Our concern all along was that the city have accurate information from the university and they move forward with their plan," Jenkins said.

BYU senior Justin Hicken said he agrees that commuters were not the problem, but the new plan will not help students much. He said he does not feel there are many parking problems between 1 and 6 in the morning, but rather between 7 p.m. and midnight or 8 p.m. and 1 a.m.

Despite the option for landlords to buy permits for renters, Hicken said he thinks students who live in the neighborhood will still have the worse end of the deal.

"If some landlords provide (permits) for their students and some don't, it's once again going to fall on the students to get permits," he said.

Although landlords will not be required to purchase enough permits for their renters, Stewart said he believes they will choose to provide the service. He also said the time frame for enforcement was chosen to allow visitors to park at friends' homes in the evening without penalty.

"We really tried to answer with this all the concerns that we heard," Stewart said.

Although Hicken does not entirely agree with the plan, he said the council members are elected representatives of the city, and the parking plan is up to them. Hopefully, students will make their opinions known and the city council will listen, he said.

Stewart said he hopes to have plenty of public input on the subject, and the council wants all residents to have enough notice before a decision is made. Two public hearings are planned for Jan. 22 and Feb. 5, and a vote could be held on Feb. 5.

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