PORT ANGELES – The Port Angeles City Council Tuesday approved the proposal to declare the downtown parking lot on Front Street next to the DSHS building as surplus, which moves developer Eric Dupar a step closer to his plan to purchase the property and build a combination parking garage, commercial center and condos.

Mayor Sissi Bruch says the next steps will be to get the property appraised and then negotiate a selling price with Dupar, who has told city officials that he would like to break ground on the project as early as this Spring.

So what about those parking concerns the Mayor mentioned? If things go as planned, the downtown area will have three major construction projects going on at once this year, when you include the Waterfront Performance Center and the Lower Elwha Hotel.

Councilman Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin has spent a lot of time studying the parking issue.

He mentioned a number of strategies that are working in other cities, such as charging for parking in the busiest blocks while offering free parking within walking distance. But he also says that adding more parking lots isn’t necessarily the best solution.

Like it or not, changes are coming downtown, and there are a lot of cities in the northwest that wish they had the inconveniences that construction in Port Angeles is likely to bring.