Potential Parking Lot Expansion Near Bernicks Arena Brought For Discussion

SARTELL -- Concerns over limited parking near Bernicks Arena has led to a discussion of a possible expansion.

During tonight's (Monday) city council meeting the council looked at the possibility of adding an additional parking lot to Pinecone Regional Park.

The park not only is home to the hockey facility but also hosts many events such as Relay for Life and concerts.

The park currently has 114 parking spaces for visitors, however a proposed design would create an additional 208 parking spaces in the open field directly in front of the arena.

While council members did agree that parking limitation needed to be resolves, several were concerned about the timing.

They said with many expensive projects already in the works for this year (Pinecone Road and the community center) they felt an expansion of the parking lot was not in the cities best interest at the moment.

However the council did decide this is something they would like the consider in the future.

The council asked staff to come up with a proposed plan that would create additional parking and somehow be constructed during the time of the second phase of the roundabout constructions in 2017.

A proposed plan will be brought back to the council for further discussion within the next four to six weeks.