Newark is on track to have a new, two-level parking facility on Main Street, perhaps by the fall of next year.

The City Council approved the structure as part of the capital budget. on Monday night.

The plan calls for a modular steel-and-concrete structure to be placed over the existing Lot 3, behind Café Gelato and Catherine Rooney’s.  The structure, known as the  More Park System, would add 113 parking spaces to the existing 200 in the lot. The estimated $3.4 million cost would be offset by raising parking fees in all three of the city’s pay-to-park lots from 50 cents per half hour to 60 cents for each half hour. 

The city has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Newark Development Trust to explore building a parking garage on Lot 1 behind the Galleria, but that project is still a few years away.

Assistant Planning Director Maureen Feeney Roser said at a previous council meeting that the city first heard about the More Park System, which is popular in Europe. “It’s built like building blocks and can be placed directly over an existing parking area,” she said. “Because it’s modular, we don’t have to shut down the entire lot while it’s being built.”

Information from the company says the system can also be dismantled and built on another location should needs change.

By contrast, a garage, like the one being considered for Lot 1, would take up to a year to build and would not have that flexibility.