When Safeway opened a new store at the east end of town five years ago, there were high hopes for redeveloping the downtown block occupied for decades by the old Safeway store. There was much discussion about how to improve it. Eventually a plaza was created with some planters and benches, but the prime city block still consists mainly of two parking lots with the plaza and the American Legion building in the middle.

At Monday’s meeting, members of the Astoria City Council were asked to approve striping and sealing the parking lot with an eye to leasing some of the parking spaces in the lot, where anyone can now park for free on a first-come basis.

Councilor Pete Roscoe came out forcefully against the idea of charging for parking. “I’m totally opposed. It’s a horrible idea and it will anger a lot of people,” Roscoe said. Councilor Arline LaMear said she is philosophically opposed because she doesn’t want the block to always be a parking lot. “It sort of says we’re not going to develop the lot,” she said.

Councilor Blair Henningsgaard said he used to agree with LaMear’s position but has changed his mind. If it’s going to be a parking lot, he said, he wants it to to be a good parking lot and one that will produce revenue. If people are using the lots, they should pay for maintenance, he said, and he opposed any improvements until he knows the city can get the money back. “It should not be a ‘freebie’ for businesses,” Henningsgaard said.

Councilor Russ Warr agreed, pointing out that when he was a downtown merchant he paid for offstreet parking for his customers and now provides parking for customers at his business in the Port area.

Mayor Willis Van Dusen said he thinks the city should charge for parking and favors looking into a parking program. But when he made a motion to go forward with striping the parking lot, his motion was tabled.

“I think there’s a much higher and better use for that block, the former Safeway-American Legion block, than we’re using now,” Van Dusen said after the meeting. “I’m in favor of putting a very temporary seal and to put some striping down there and possibly get some revenue, but Commissioner LaMear brought up some excellent points that maybe that’s sending a signal that that’s what it’s going to be forever. And that would not be at the level that I would hope we could do as a City Council and a community.

“We’ll have to see where it goes. There were three options, whether or not to look into getting revenue for that parking lot, whether or not to stripe the parking lot and whether to put on a very temporary seal. It was a good discussion tonight but no decision.”

In other business, the Council:

? awarded a $312,000 contract to low-bidder Bayview Transit Mix for paving Astoria streets. Since the city has up to $400,000 to spend on paving, more streets will be added to the list;

? adopted an ordinance allowing marijuana offenses to be cited into municipal court;

? authorized purchasing an additional $24,000 vehicle for the police department.