Parking wars on Gophers football game day

Saturday's Purdue-Gophers homecoming football game isn't the only clash unfolding over by the University of Minnesota. More than a dozen Stadium Village businesses are banging heads with Minneapolis licensing and zoning inspectors over warnings and $250 fines for parking cars in their private lots near the new TCF Bank Stadium on game days.

"Everyone was excited, but it's turned into a fiasco," said Darrin Mercil, who manages Campus Auto Repair, a family business since 1936. "My dad has sold game-day parking for decades, but now we're running into a big stone wall, and it's not pretty."

The bureaucratic tangle involves two city ordinances. The first requires businesses to obtain a license to sell parking spots. But when several of these smaller, family-run businesses headed over to City Hall to apply, they were told they don't qualify.

That's because a long-term neighborhood plan, approved two years ago by the Minneapolis City Council, established something called a Transit Station Area Pedestrian Oriented Overlay District. The idea was to get cars and parking lots out of the area to make way for more bicycles, walkers and light rail in 2014.

But with 50,000 people swarming in and out of the area to attend games, business owners say their optimism has turned into a lose-lose situation. Take the case of Tech Huy Ung, whose family has owned the popular U Garden Chinese restaurant for nearly 17 years on University Avenue.

At the first game, he braced for an onslaught of customers. None showed up, fearing traffic snarls. So, for the second game Sept. 19, he charged $25 to let customers park and receive a gift certificate for a free meal any time. City licensing inspectors photographed him waving cars into his 60 spaces and issued two warnings.

"I'm in charge of regulation, and these folks are not following the rules," said Ricardo Cervantes, the city's deputy licensing director.

Ung says his property taxes have gone up $6,000 to nearly $42,000 a year since the stadium went up, but now he has no customers on game days and no ability to make parking revenue, while he must pay employees to manage the lot so no tailgaters sneak in and violate another ordinance for which he can be fined.

"They treat me like a criminal on my own property," Ung said. "It seems like they have too much control."

Jack LaBrasseur, operating partner at the 50-spot Arby's, said he would routinely charge $8 for Gophers hockey and basketball games, or $5 if you bought food.

"No one said boo until the football stadium opened and we had no idea we were breaking the law," he said. "We're small fries, with maybe 500 total spaces. But they want the university to have a monopoly, so if you make a $1,000 contribution, you can park."

He said he typically lets weekday customers leave their cars in Arby's lot if they have medical appointments at the U. He was nailed with a $250 fine after the first game for doing much the same.

Creative solution?

Jeffrey Barnhart, 24, works as a property manager for his father, who owns four buildings in the 2800 block of University Avenue. He charged $10 to park at the first game, hoping to pay off student loans after he graduated last year from the U. When inspectors told him he needed a license, he went to City Hall and was told he couldn't have one because of the new zoning rules.

So at the last game, Barnhart handed out letters detailing his frustrations and offering his 130 spaces for free -- adding that his drier broke and he would he happy to accept donations. He wound up with enough money to buy a $300 used drier.

"It sounds like a scam, but we haven't crossed his path yet," said Cervantes, the licensing supervisor.

He and City Council Member Cam Gordon, whose ward includes the stadium, said the dispute might have been eased had business owners taken part in years of planning meetings. The owners insist they were never told about the new zoning rules.

Cervantes denied the business owners' claims that the city is in cahoots with the university, funneling all the parking revenue its way. "We try to be a good partner," he said. "We're minding our own back yard, but in conjunction with the University of Minnesota."

Neighborhood concerns about unauthorized tailgating and illegal public alcohol consumption prompted some of the enforcement, he said. Gordon said the city needs to balance long-term planning and short-term business issues.

"The new zoning overlay rules out auto-centric uses such as commercial parking lots," Gordon said.

He pointed to downtown surface lots near the Metrodome that earn enough parking money to dissuade new development. Gordon said the plan is aimed at property owners along University Avenue who might decide to tear down houses, get rid of tenants and make easier money with a surface lot.

But Mercil, the auto repair shop owner, said if cars are the issue, why pick on small lots like his when large parking ramps punctuate the campus area?

"I'm willing to explore options," Gordon said. "Maybe there's some kind of middle ground."

A Stadium Village Commercial Association meeting is scheduled for next week, and Gordon said there's a chance they could grandfather in older businesses, limit the private lots to game days or come up with a short-term plan until light-rail construction begins.

"We have to get creative," Gordon said. "But I'm not sure there's a quick solution."

Curt Brown • 612-673-4767

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