By Alex Pikturna

Hold onto your grocery bags, changes are coming to Cleveland’s West Side Market.

With the recent opening of large supermarkets in the downtown Cleveland area, the city is planning to expand parking & update schedules of the 100 year old West Side Market to keep up with the competition.

The biggest change, which is expected to be pushed through and completed by 2017, is a merging of the current Lorain parking lot, and the adjacent Hicks lot. Around $3 million have been set aside to complete the project. This could introduce more than 100 new parking spaces to the area. Leaders in the area are also proposing turning private lots into public parking on weekends.
Accompanying the expansion is a proposed plan to begin charging for parking in the area.  Plans are also in the works to introduce legislation that could extend the days parking meters are active  in the area to include Saturdays and Sundays to combat parking spots being held for days on end with no repercussions.

The second major change is the new business schedule.  The West Side Market opened in 1912, and the schedule has not been updated since. The new schedule is planned to include Sunday operations, and changing the current Wednesday hours. Business owners will be given an option to open 4 or 5 days of the week. The new changes aren’t expected to take place until January 1st, where they will be included in the lease agreements.