Fans heading to soccer games at Allianz Field who are accustomed to free parking on nearby neighborhood streets will have to park farther away.

The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday approved new parking rules requiring residential permits for parking on Concordia, Carroll and Iglehart avenues between Asbury and Pascal streets, which are within a quarter-mile of the new stadium at Interstate 94 and Snelling Avenue.

Residents living on those streets had submitted petitions and the Union Park District Council sent a letter to the City Council in support of the need for permit parking. Neighbors had complained about increased noise and traffic in the area before and after Minnesota United games. They also said employees and fans take up much of the on-street parking on game days, leaving residents with no place to park.

"Allianz Field is the 500 pound bag of straws that broke the camel's back," said Daniel Jambor, a neighborhood resident and member of the Union Park District Council Board, during a public hearing Wednesday. "Everyone will walk a quarter-mile for free parking."

Not everybody was in favor of the measure. In a letter to the city's Public Works department, the Snelling-Selby Area Business Association objected.

City Council President Amy Brendmoen voted in favor of the measure but thought permit parking might be a "heavy solution for a game day problem."

In casting the lone dissenting vote, Council Member Mitra Jalali Nelson said she was supportive of the issues brought forth by residents and wants to address the problems but felt it was too broad and overreaching. She pointed out that this is the first season for the new stadium and that it was premature to expand permit parking.

"We need to see what the season is like and come up with some intervention before going to a much more permanent and more far-reaching solution, which is making entire neighborhoods permit parking only 24/7," she said. "I want to work on other ways to get at this issue. We need to step back and look at this holistically."

A second measure to require permit parking on Concordia Avenue between Pierce Street and Snelling Avenue and on Pierce Street and Fry Street from Carroll to Concordia avenues did not pass.

Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768