St. Paul will experiment with alternate-side winter parking in two neighborhoods

In an effort to better plow streets, St. Paul will experiment with alternate-side parking in two neighborhoods for the rest of the winter.

People parking in parts of Payne-Phalen and Highland Park will park on one side of the street one week and the other side of the street the next week.

“Since we put the current system in place 30 years ago, a lot has changed,” Public Works Director Sean Kershaw said.

Warmer winters with more rain have changed the quality of snowbanks, he said. A labor shortage means there are fewer people available to ticket and tow cars. And people have come to expect that they will be able to drive much sooner after a snow storm.

Kershaw said the snowy winters of 2022 and 2023 made the city think plowing could be better, and St. Paul has been eyeing some change to winter parking rules ever since.

Both St. Paul and Minneapolis implemented alternate-side parking in early 2023, after snowbanks from successive blizzards made some streets too narrow for fire trucks.

Kershaw said he hoped alternate-side parking could mean better plowing, and that clearer rules would mean fewer people get ticketed and towed.

The pilot period will run from Feb. 2 to April 12.

Streets that are subject to the alternate-side parking rules will have signs, and over the next week, public works staff will put fliers on cars parked on the streets that will have the new rules.

The Payne-Phalen neighborhood pilot area boundaries are Maryland Avenue on the north, Desoto Street on the east, Case Avenue on the south, and Mississippi Street on the west.

The Highland Park neighborhood pilot area boundaries are Ford Parkway on the north, Snelling Avenue on the east, Montreal Avenue on the south, and Fairview Avenue on the west.

On an “even” week, when Sunday falls on an even-numbered date, cars must park on the side of the street with even-numbered addresses. When Sunday is an odd-numbered date, cars park on the side of the street with odd addresses. Cars will have between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. Sundays to change sides.

Current snow emergency rules will not apply in the pilot areas from Feb. 2 through April 12, but are still in effect in the rest of the city.