KELTY Hearts will be given a £250,000 grant from Fife Council to build and operate a new car park next to their ground.
The goal is to tackle congestion - residents say they can't get parked outside their own homes on match days and other busy periods - and 70 spaces will be created on land known locally as the trotting track.
The move was agreed by the cabinet committee on Thursday although an SNP councillor raised a question about the League One club's finances as he said "all the money men" had left to join Raith Rovers.
In a report, Paul Vaughan, head of communities and neighbourhoods service, explained: "Parking congestion occurs due to the volume of people accessing the Kelty Community Centre, Kelty Primary School and Kelty Hearts Football Club.
"Residents report they cannot park near their properties with congestion present on various streets including Bath Street, Main Street, Oak Street, Kelty Hill Road, Dewars Avenue and Aitken Avenue.
"This also has an impact on emergency vehicles and public transport trying to pass through these streets."
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The council had previously set aside £250,000 in their capital plan to put towards the construction of a car park for Kelty community centre.
Now they've teamed up with the football club, that money will be turned into a grant to Kelty Hearts to build and operate the facility for the benefit of the community.
It will also be next to the community centre which opened in May 2016 at a cost of £7.5 million - it included an extension to the primary school - and brought a number of services, sports and leisure activities into one integrated facility.
Visitor numbers and public access have increased as a result.
That's coincided with the rise of Kelty Hearts from non-league to the professional ranks of Scottish football and Mr Vaughan said: "Since joining the SPFL, attendance has increased and they now average attendance of 500-700 per game with the bigger games attracting in the region of 1,200 supporters.
"The facilities also attract school games, amateur cup finals and friendly games from all over Fife as well as providing a venue for school proms, social events and local activities."
He added: "Although this is a great success story of growth and development, like the growth of the community centre and the extension of Kelty Primary School, the users of the club can also create parking challenges for residents."
The committee was told that the trotting track is owned by Persimmon Homes who are happy to sell and parking will be free.
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The leader of the opposition, SNP councillor David Alexander, said: "Paul mentioned this money is going to provide a 'basic needs' car park. Will this eventually be a better surface and if it is, who is going to pay for it?
"No disrespect to Kelty Hearts whatsoever but all the money men went to Raith Rovers. I don't know if they'll have the financial wherewithal to do that if it was going to be them."
Mr Vaughan said the grant funding approach would give Kelty Hearts the opportunity to access external funds that aren't available to the council, should they choose to further develop the site.
And he told the committee that "we've done our due diligence to check that Kelty Hearts is a sound organisation to be able to undertake this work".
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