City plans to demolish downtown building for parking space

More downtown parking is in Sidney’s future.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the city council approved the purchase of property located at 812 9th Ave. to provide additional parking in the area. The city entered into an agreement to purchase two commercial properties from Mildred Elwell for the price of $50,000. The property includes a building as well as a fenced lot.

“It’s an old structure that has a lot of structural damage,” said city manager Gary Person. “And obviously it has a lot of wear and tear from its age.”

The structure and lot are both currently used for storage. This is one of the last remaining commercial lots owned by the family, which ran Elwell Motors in Sidney for many years.

“To further develop Hickory St. Square, we’re really limited on space and every time we talk about doing something down, we’re taking another parking space down there,” Person said.

With downtown parking already limited and the development of upper-floor housing above many businesses in the works, the city knew that more downtown parking was a necessity.

Sidney entered into a contract with Elwell to take ownership of the property in August, giving the family time to remove items from the building. This will also allow the city time to line up plans for building demolition and parking lot improvements.

Although a feasibility study found that owning and operating a convention center would be difficult for the city, it currently has a $250,000 convention center grant that could possibly be applied to funding for any public gathering area, such as downtown, Person told the council. This money could possibly be used in conjunction with this new space for downtown improvements.

“It’ll allow us to continue to do some really neat things in the downtown area, as well as take care of a substandard and blighted property,” Person said.