Vernon businessman says city of Vernon won’t let him open downtown parking lot – Vernon News

Photo: Darren Handschuh

Gary Batula has more than 30 paid parking spaces downtown ready to be filled, but he says the city of Vernon won’t let them.

In July 2023, a massive the fire destroyed a building at the intersection of 29th Avenue and 30th Street. Several businesses were lost in the fire.

After dealing with insurance companies, property owner Gary Batula removed the remains of the building, leaving a concrete basement where the structure once stood.

Batula then filled the basement and hired ImPark to manage the much-needed parking he created.

However, the project hit a roadblock.

“We’ve run into a few little issues with the city of Vernon,” Batula said.

Batula claims the zoning of his parking lot “is the same as their parking lot down the road, but they’re telling us we can’t use ours as parking right now.”

He is currently in discussions with the city to try to resolve the issue.

“Right now things are at a standstill and with the Christmas season and the New Year we’re in a rush and wait phase,” he said.

Batula said he was told by the city that the property is not zoned for a parking lot, but a “parking lot for another building.”

But the property owner says the city-run parking lot next to the Vernon library “has the same zoning as our potential parking lot. I’m not sure why they can do that, but we as private citizens can’t.”

Batula is currently working through the zoning issues, but was told he needs to make some changes to the current proposed lot, such as adding “two feet of landscaping” before he can proceed. He said what started as a simple project became much more complicated.

Parking availability has long been a concern for downtown businesses.

“We’ve been approached by five companies looking for monthly parking for their employees,” he said.

Castanet has reached out to the City of Vernon for comment.