St. Paul to lift parking restrictions at noon Thursday

Starting Thursday at noon, St. Paul will have a lot more places to park.

The city will lift its parking restrictions for one side of residential streets 11 days early, following a spate of warm weather and snow removal efforts that widened the roads.

"The one-side parking ban was an unusual, but necessary, step to ensure our streets were safe and accessible this winter," said Public Works Director Kathy Lantry in a statement. "We understand this was an inconvenience for residents, businesses and visitors these past two and a half weeks. We greatly appreciate everyone's cooperation and compliance with the parking rules."

The restrictions went into effect March 6, after the season's sixth snow emergency in five weeks and several winter storms that made for narrow and treacherous driving in some areas.

It was the first time since 2014 the city had to restrict parking due to winter weather.

As of Wednesday evening, the Minneapolis winter parking restrictions remained in effect.