MARION, IL —- The Marion City Council Monday night approved an ordinance eliminating parking on the east side of North and South Market Street.

Cody Moake, who is Marion Mayor Mike Absher’s Chief of Staff, says over the coming days and weeks, the street department will work to shift the center line and eliminate the lines for the current parking spaces on the east side.

Moake says the city had received some safety complaints that the lanes were too narrow for normal traffic to pass through. The city researched and found that over the last five years there had been 16 traffic accidents on that stretch of road consistent with the road being too narrow. The city’s engineer measured the road, and compared to IDOT’s standards for parking on both sides, found that the road was too narrow by seven feet to allow parking on both sides making it a safety issue.

The city purchased a 16 space parking lot along the east side of North Market and will designate some of those spaces to the businesses affected by the closure. Moake says the city continues to look for additional opportunities to add parking in the downtown area to encourage patrons to visit downtown businesses.