by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Parking at an expired meter or staying over the limit in a time-restricted space doesn’t currently incur much wrath from the City. But those $5 citations may soon be a thing of the past.
City Council member Art Shad said Wednesday that legislation has been filed to raise parking fines citywide.
“If you look at other cities and even other states you’ll notice that our parking fines are far less severe,” said Shad.
A 2001 report by the Downtown Development Authority said parking fines in cities such as Miami, West Palm Beach, New Orleans and Los Angeles are as high as $25.
“With that kind of information, it’s hard to argue against $5 being ridiculously low,” said Shad. “And to be honest, the City is actually losing money by having to have go out and issue and process those tickets.
“That doesn’t make very much sense, especially when you consider that we haven’t updated our fines in almost 10 years.”
If Shad’s bill passes, overtime and expired meter fines would double to $10. Loading zone fines would be upped by approximately 40 percent to $25.
Late fees would go up, too. Five dollar and subsequent $10 late fees are both expected to be be raised by $5.
“If anything, this is the kind of thing that can help ease parking frustrations in areas like downtown, Riverside/Avondale and San Marco,” he said. “That’s always been a major complaint.”
In those areas, Shad said slight fines may add to a lack of short term parking.
“Think about it. Right now it’s cheaper to park on the street and risk being fined that it is to park monthly somewhere else downtown,” he said. “Because of that, we have people who work downtown using the meters.
“That’s not what they’re there for.”
According to the DDA report, there are approximately 1,606 metered spaces downtown and nearly 59,000 jobs in the area.
“With new stiffer penalties, those monthly lots and garages would be much more attractive options,” he said. “We not only start using more of our long term parking, we also free up those meters for people who are downtown for only a short amount of time.
“It works for everyone.”
Council member Suzanne Jenkins, who represents much of downtown, agreed it might be time reexamine parking fines.
“I do think its time for that dialogue to start taking place,” she said. “Yes, parking is a problem downtown and we have to be prepared to address it.
“We have to or people are never going to come down here to help revive it.”
Shad’s bill will be introduced at Tuesday’s Council meeting and later reviewed by various committees. A full Council vote could come by late September.