We agree with Alpena Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Anne Gentry, who told News staff writer Steve Schulwitz for a recent story that she believes the city ought to conduct a parking study to find out what the city needs in terms of parking spaces and whether any of those slots ought to cost money to park in.

The DDA and city officials have off and on for years discussed the possibility of paid parking returning to downtown Alpena. Officials, too, have discussed the construction of a new parking garage downtown.

Proponents of paid parking say it’s needed because downtown business employees and others take up parking spaces close to downtown businesses, forcing downtown patrons to park far away from the businesses they intend to patronize. Charging money for the parking spaces would limit the amount of time people spend in any one spot, making the spots open up more frequently for other downtown patrons, backers argue.

It also would generate revenue to help fund the construction of a parking garage to add more spaces downtown.

Opponents say paid parking would only burden downtown patrons and perhaps hinder downtown traffic.

Much has changed in downtown Alpena since the last time officials had a serious discussion about starting to charge for downtown parking.

Some businesses have been added, like the Sanctuary Cinema movie theater on the corner of 2nd Avenue and Chisholm St. Others have gone away, such as the Fresh Palate, which closed last month.

Those changes make it unclear exactly what the parking situation is downtown and what the situation needs to be to keep traffic flowing downtown.

For that reason, we agree a parking study is needed to quantify the need and, hopefully, make recommendations to DDA and city officials about the best ways to meet that need.

We know anecdotally that parking can be a challenge downtown, especially during peak tourism season and during special downtown events.

A study would help turn anecdotes into data that policymakers can use to make informed decisions about what parking should look like.

We call on the DDA board and Alpena Municipal Council to work together on a parking study as soon as feasibly possible so everyone can know how big of a priority parking should be for our decision-makers.