Following concerns expressed by local business owners, the Kalona City Council tabled discussion of its proposed downtown parking and driving restrictions for agricultural vehicles.

According to City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh, the council introduced the ordinance to address congestion and safety as the city has seen large agricultural vehicles taking up a larger percentage of the road, “We redid our downtown in 2010, so we’re 15 years into that, and we knew that to be able have sidewalks of ADA size we would decrease the size of streets in our downtown. We’ve always been very cognizant of how that would impact parking and so forth. When we started seeing some of these trends we wanted to be proactive.” 

The proposed change restricts parking in the downtown area along 4th Street, 6th Street, A Avenue and D Avenue. It restricts driving in that area for agricultural vehicles on 5th Street, B Avenue, C Avenue and any adjacent alleyways

Schlabaugh said that the city will be sending a survey to downtown business owners to gather additional information before the issue returns to the council at its August 4 meeting.