GRAND RAPIDS, MI — What began as a brief update on a new bike corral installed along Jefferson Avenue SE near Fulton Street took a somewhat philosophical turn at Thursday morning's Parking Commission meeting.

The corral originally would have eliminated a parking spot on Jefferson before being moved across the street to a no-parking zone after complaint by nearby business owners, said Pam Ritsema, Grand Rapids’ parking administrator.

The new location was agreeable to all, until one business owner emailed Ritsema a photo of a bike hitched to a parking meter outside Bartertown Diner, not to the new corral across the street.

“Somebody had chained their bike to a meter on the opposite side of the street,” Ritsema said, “and they were offended by the clutter.”

But, Ritsema said, unlike a moped, the city cannot ticket a bicycle chained to parking meters, trees and the like. The corral came to be, no less, because a Bartertown employee was ticketed for hitching his moped to a parking meter.

“Short of, like, clipping the chain and taking the bike, we can’t write a ticket because there’s no person, there’s no license,” Ritsema said. “We don’t know who the owner is. We can’t associate it with a person.”

Ritsema's comments launched a 20-minute discussion among commissioners about where and how future racks or corrals might be installed, largely in the context of whether racks would be appropriate if bicyclists chain their bikes elsewhere.

Debate also centered on the implications of the Jefferson rack as precedent-setting, insofar as it appears to be among the least intrusive places for an on-street bike rack.

The parking commission's contribution of a bike rack on Jefferson will be coupled with racks installed at multiple locations throughout the city before ArtPrize begins next week.

Those racks will be installed by the Downtown Development Authority, whose leader last month said “we’ve got to do something quickly or we’ll have bicycles chained (to parking meters, trees, street signs and other things during ArtPrize).”

But at Thursday's meeting, parking commissioner David LaGrand was swift to bat down even the notion that city leaders should start ticketing or penalizing bicyclists who hitch their bikes to any suitable post downtown.

“I think it’d be demonstrably insane to start ticketing people for securing their bikes in places where they think are appropriate,” LaGrand said. “I can’t think of anything that’s more bike-hostile than doing that.”

The placement of the Jefferson corral, near the northwest corner, became a focal point of the discussion because, as commissioners pointed out, it could set precedent as far as future rack installations by the parking system.

Ritsema said the location was chosen after nearby business owners cried foul over plans to remove a parking space in favor of the rack.

The rack now is situated next to a fire hydrant in what was already a no-parking zone, a placement approved by city fire leaders.

“We think that we can use that going forward, that that’s a model for bike parking,” Ritsema said, “so that we don’t have to use any car parking spaces, but can add on-street bike parking.”

LaGrand ran with that premise.

“I would love to see us put some money into systematically putting bike racks at every single fire hydrant we can get our hands on, and extend that into business districts and neighborhoods,” LaGrand said.

“If the fire department’s okay with it,” he added, “we just took a huge leap with zero cost, right, and zero inconvenience.”

But Mike Ellis, president of Ellis Parking, argued if LaGrand wanted to suggest any pole, meter or tree could be used to chain a bike, there would be no point in installing racks.

“There has to be some philosophy,” Ellis said. “I mean, I don’t think we can both go to this kind of effort and then say every parking meter downtown is a potential bike rack. Otherwise, why do it?”

LaGrand disagreed, saying the habits of one bicyclist who chains to a parking meter are not necessarily the same as another who would use a rack.

Commissioner Andy Guy pointed out the Jefferson rack was an experiment by the parking authority, and that future projects can be built upon.

“This is a pilot project, right, and it’s the first time we’ve done it in the city,” Guy said. “We’re learning we’re evolving with the conversation and the needs and the opportunities.”

Zane McMillin may be reached through email and Twitter.