ZELIENOPLE — With a scarcity of parking spaces, borough council is considering a way for new businesses to open without meeting parking requirements.

They would pay a fee instead.

The practice is called fee in-lieu, and council was asked at its meeting Monday night to consider supporting it as a part of a new zoning ordinance.

The borough’s zoning ordinance requires each business to have a certain number of parking spaces based on how many people it employs and how many customers it serves. On-street parking does not count, though the public lots can count with some limits.

Fee in-lieu is an option that would allow a new business to bypass that requirement, said Nikki Colton, borough code enforcement and zoning officer.

The money collected would go for construction of a new public parking lot or the maintenance of current spaces.

The fees could be paid as a lump sum up front or as an annual fee on an indefinite basis.

In an attempt to attract more businesses to the borough, the proposed ordinance also would reduce the number of spaces required of a new business, Colton said.

Council member Mary Hess, who owns the Spring Street Café, said she had to get additional spots outside of her property to meet the parking requirements.

“Zelienople is very prohibitive for things like restaurants. You notice we don’t have a ton of them,” Hess said.

Council member Greg Semel said he could see the fee option being used by new businesses looking to open on the upper floors of some of the buildings on Main Street.

“There is vacant square footage in this town that people would love to develop, but they can’t meet the parking criteria,” he said.

One issue is the borough doesn’t know how much it would charge, Council President Allen Bayer said.

Bayer asked Colton and borough engineer Tom Thompson to look at what similar communities have charged for these fees and make a recommendation.

If adopted, council also would be able to change the fees later.

The fee in-lieu idea would be one part of an extensive amendment to the zoning ordinance that Zelienople officials have been working on for about two years, said borough manager Don Pepe.

A public hearing likely will be scheduled on a proposed ordinance in the next 60 to 90 days, he said.