Before the five development teams submitted their proposals for the latest round of “Pin the City Hall somewhere in Little Norway” everyone knew the rules, especially when it came to the contentious issue of parking in the city’s historic downtown core.

Not only is downtown known for its quaint Norwegian charm, but its dearth of adequate parking for shoppers, which are the lifeblood of any business, especially those without the backing of a national or regional piggybank to get them on their feet and help them survive the lean times.

However, it appears the rules are changing and the assumptions made by each of the development teams will be held to a different standard, not based on appearance, but parking.

The curveball was tossed by Councilwoman Connie Lord Wednesday night as she made a surprise motion to pass an emergency zoning change to the downtown parking requirements.

Currently, development is allowed from lot line to lot line without the requirement of onsite parking, but under Lord’s proposal that would change for any redevelopment of existing non-residential properties in the downtown core.

Expressing a grave concern about the impacts of redevelopment on the area’s existing parking crisis, Lord asked the council to require that any redevelopment of non-residental property be required to provide enough parking to accommodate the increased impacts on parking.

Here’s a little story to show how damaging that could be to any efforts to redevelop an existing building that has the revenue generation of a moped, when it could be retrofitted into a Harley.

Big Bank Hank buys a 4,000-square-foot retail building on Front Street from a property owner, who has decided Beverly Hills is the place he wants to be and he’d like his pockets lined before he leaves.

The sale is made, and high-rollin’ Hank decides if he wipes the slate clean and builds a 12,000 square foot three-story mixed use building replete with quaint retail shops on the street and waterfrontview offices above, he’ll double his money and leave a happy man.

What he doesn’t know is that instead of being allowed to use the existing parking for the entire project, he’s going to have to find another 20 parking spaces somewhere. His building covers his entire property, so his only choices are to either build 20 spaces below the storefront or call it a bust and go elsewhere.

He’s a private developer, so he knew the risk he took with his own money, but when it comes to city hall, it’s not the city council’s dollars, it’s taxpayers’ dollars that will be lost if this latest attempt goes awry.

City officials asked developers to be creative and encouraged them to provide parking solutions in their proposals, so they did based upon the rules they were given at the time.

Some of the city hall proposals may be pulled by the very teams which worked hard to work to give city officials a solution to their decade-old problem, and no one could blame them for doing so.

With only Councilman Ed Stern holding out against Lord’s proposal because of his concerns about its impact not on the out-of-towners, but the local business and property owner looking to improve their situation and help their clientele, it looks like it’s all over but the crying.

And crying maybe all there is left to do as taxpayers are left to ponder why they voted to keep city hall in downtown in the first place.