Get it?

The Eau Claire City Council gave thumbs up – actually it was 10 thumbs up – to two downtown projects Tuesday.

Following the lead of the Plan Commission a week earlier, the council gave the go-ahead for a 53-stall parking lot at the corner of Madison and Forest streets just north of – and across the street from – the Phoenix Park farmers market pavilion. The lot should help ease the summertime parking crunch in the neighborhood when people flock to the Phark for the farmers market, the Sounds Like Summer Concert Series, and other big events. The lot will cost between $150,000 and $264,000, depending on the kind of asphalt that is used. Before the lot can be built, however, the city has to hash out details with Xcel Energy, which will need to periodically access a substation next to the lot.

Earlier this summer, the North River Fronts Neighborhood Association voted narrowly to support creating the lot. A larger lot had been discussed last year, but that was rejected on a tie vote by the council. Plans also had to be redrawn after the Federal Emergency Management Agency told the city that part of the proposed site couldn’t be used because it had been purchased with FEMA funds after the Chippewa River flooded there in the 1990s.

On Tuesday the City Council also OK’d a rezoning request for a 57-united apartment building on Riverfront Terrace, just across the street from Phoenix Park (and next to where the fancy new JAMF office building will go up). Commonweal Development is building the three- and four-story structure, which will resemble Commonweal’s other two Riverfront Terrace apartment buildings in the same block. The project also will include the rebuilding of Hobart Street, which is adjacent to the new apartment.

The new apartment will include underground parking for vehicles and bikes as well as a 30-stall surface parking lot, but a 14-stall parking lot will be removed. Under the city zoning formulas used to calculate how many parking spots must be provided when a new building is put up – which, trust us, will make your eyes glaze over – the building is still five parking stalls short. Fear not, however: The city allows one required vehicle parking spot to be subtracted for every two additional bike spots added. Because there are already four extra bike parking spots next door, Commonweal will have to add six more bike stalls. The upshot is that, whether they drive or pedal, future tenants will have somewhere to stash their wheels.