One of the benefits of the Downtown Circulation and Street Improvement Master Plan adopted Tuesday by the Ripon City Council will be an increase of parking spaces.

That’s given some slight modifications made to the roads north and south between West Main Street and Second Street — the emphasis on the master plan was to preserve and add on-street parking, according to Planning Director Ken Zuidervaart.

“The modifications considered actually resulted in a net increase of approximately 13 on-street parking spaces as opposed to a potential decrease – that’s a big positive,” he said.

The objective of the Downtown Circulation and Street Improvement Master Plan – included is a project priority list consisting of about 16 items estimated at nearly $15 million – is to have a cohesive design that can be phased over time based on available funding.

Among the available financing sources are the Street & Road Reserve Fund and a grant for $1.3 million for some of the improvements on Second Street, possibly by midyear 2022.

Further down the list is the proposed Main Street turn-around improvements as part of the Multi-Modal station plans.

High on the project priority list is improvements on South Locust Avenue between Main and Second streets with an estimated price tag of $1.5 million.

No. 2 is First Street between South Stockton Avenue and South Locust Avenue at about $1.6 million.

Councilman Mike Restuccia believes that the South Elm Avenue and Walnut Avenue between First and Second streets, at No. 8, should be moved up the list.

“From my standpoint, every road going on to Main Street should be a priority,” he said.

His colleague Leo Zuber believes that the list also needs to be flexible based on potential grant funding criteria or, rather, a set of requirements.

“You got to be willing to set the priority list aside to get money,” he said.

Zuidervaart added the list is “more a direction for staff to start working on things.”