As city officials appear headed toward issuing parking permits
to downtown residents and employees, exempting a large portion of
the prospective ticket recipients and cutting away at potential
revenue, it begs the questions of whether the enforcement program
is needed and whether revenue ultimately will offset costs.
As city officials appear headed toward issuing parking permits to downtown residents and employees, exempting a large portion of the prospective ticket recipients and cutting away at potential revenue, it begs the questions of whether the enforcement program is needed and whether revenue ultimately will offset costs.
City council members recently received a thorough and well-written report by the temporary community services officer who has handled the parking enforcement since its reinstatement more than three months ago. In it, he recommended that residents and employees in the downtown district should be eligible for permits to use in city lots.
Under the current program’s slate of restrictions, the move makes sense. City officials even could take the change to another level and remove time limits in public lots, avoiding the permitting process. That would deem the additional administrative work, and the extra cost for permit holders, unnecessary.
However council members approach the recommended changes, it does provide an opportunity to take a clear look at the numbers and figure out where the enforcement program ultimately is headed. Permitting for the same population of locals who were cited as the primary reason to reinstate enforcement – because some shop owners contended they used up too many spaces near their businesses – is destined to largely curtail the number of tickets issues.
As to whether city officials see the program as sustainable in the long term, it will matter how low those numbers go, and whether the trend line works in favor of ensuring there is no added cost to taxpayers in the end. Aside from those citations, of course.
There is an unnecessary burden placed on the entire population because, as enforcement proponents have acknowledged, downtown employees were parking their vehicles in shopping areas and leaving them there the entire work day.
Now officials will find out how much downtown employees’ habits played into the problem, and whether the burden shared by all local drivers is worth the purported benefits.
