Commissioner unanimously agreed to convert the top deck of the parking garage at Ninth and New Hampshire streets into a free, 10-hour parking lot.

Downtown Lawrence Inc. leaders had suggested making the top deck a free parking area, with the hopes that downtown businesses would encourage their employees to park in the lot.

City commissioners were open to the idea, in part, because a city survey showed that the 135-space parking lot routinely had a vacancy rate of more than 95 percent.

Commissioners agreed to try the program for a year.