But elected officials balked at adding enforcement staff for fear of becoming “a city of tickets.” Instead, they decided Monday to outfit their lone parking enforcement officer with new technology to speed up his patrol.
“I want to spend money on providing better parking experiences for our residents and our guests,” Vice Mayor Pete Weldon said. “I don’t want to spend money on penalizing people, and I don’t want to spend money on people that are hired to penalize people.”
The city earmarked $100,000 from its Community Redevelopment Agency toward buying a vehicle-mounted license plate reader, as well as updating its parking code to encourage new developments to come with increased parking.
At the Spice and Tea Exchange on Park Avenue, employees are often a few minutes late and blame it on them trolling available spaces, which quickly fill up during busy hours.
Joshua Gant, the store’s sales manager, said although most employees on the avenue have hangtags allowing them to park in off-street lots, they face stiff competition from shoppers even in those lots.
Along Park Avenue drivers can parallel park for free in spaces with a three-hour time limit. Spots on several surrounding streets and lots have four-hour limits.
On some days, Gant said he’s parked on the busy street and decided to pay the inevitable $25 ticket.
“There have been times where I’ve just had to own up to it if I’m tired of circling and I’m already late,” said Gant, 24. “If somebody walks in a few minutes late, I don’t even have to ask why.”
The problem is widespread, according to the report from Kimley-Horn, the city’s parking consultant.
The report found Park Avenue employees resort to parking along the Avenue in hopes of dodging enforcement officer Derek Tooley, the city’s only full-time parking enforcer.
Tooley, a 12-year veteran unsworn officer, wrote about 2,200 parking tickets throughout the city last year, with most coming in the downtown area.
He said he usually directs circling drivers to the 4th and 5th floors of a Canton Avenue parking garage or a surface lot by the city’s train station where shoppers and employees alike can park.
But “we still get a lot of people in loading zones,” Tooley said.
Each day he walks the avenue and other busy streets with a handheld scanner searching for delinquent parkers. The scanner logs tag numbers, and then he returns later to see which vehicles have violated the time limit.
Once the city gets the plate reader, the report said it could allow him to complete his route in his car in less than half of the time he does on foot, increasing the likelihood he would nab downtown employees trying to skirt the rules.
It’s unclear when the city will purchase the technology, which costs about $30,000, but planning director Dori Stone said it can at any time.
The report states the city has enough spaces to meet demand most of the year but notes the frustrations of the community. It recommends that officials should look at a "comprehensive strategy” to address the problem.
Commissioners in August were briefed on potential locations for parking garages, but so far haven’t moved forward on that idea, Stone said.
Sarah Stevens loves to bring her three young children down from Sanford to play in Central Park or to attend the weekly farmer’s market.
Parking has gotten easier for her since the city opened Parking Lot A — the train station lot — but she also has learned to avoid Park Avenue during busy times.
“But there are still times where I’ve circled over 15 minutes,” Stevens said.
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