Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The cost of parking offenses and fines have increased in the City of Howell and enforcement of the new changes is starting up this week.

City Council approved an ordinance updating parking offenses, which includes escalating fees. It’s tied to repeat violations from the same downtown business owners, workers, and residents so the City is now stepping up enforcement. The goal is to curb behavior or repeat offenders and create more turnover for prime parking spots for customers and visitors downtown.

The City earlier hired a new full-time Code/Parking Enforcement Officer.

Officials have stated that taking up spaces intended for the public and customers of the downtown results in the loss of revenue for neighboring businesses.

The City has several eight-hour lots totaling over 250 spaces, which are only enforced from 8am to 5:30pm, that are located within the central business district and available for those who need parking longer than four hours.

City Manager Erv Suida told WHMI they have roughly 900 parking spots downtown that include 8-hour, 4-hour, and 3-hour parking lots. He says the City has had issues with repeat offenders that continue to park in lots over the time limit. Suida says they’ve now doubled fees from $5 to $10 for violations. He noted they’ve also made them graduating so if someone gets another ticket, it doubles in 7 days.

Suida said they’re doing this because they don’t discourage visitors or customers from coming and spending their time and money downtown but also so that people who are parking in certain spaces routinely use one of the 8-hour lots instead of others for customers.

At Monday night’s meeting, it was noted that the City has been in communication with the Downtown Development Authority about the changes and is working to educate business owners and others.

The challenges of enforcement were also noted, which was said to be a cumbersome task that involves having to tag vehicles and then come back to check if someone is over the time limit.

The City said it feels the increase is fair and would not be too discouraging should a customer or visitor receive a parking fine. However, a memo states that increasing the fine and including the rolling graduated fines should help curb the behavior of the repeat offenders.

The memo and ordinance can be viewed in the Council meeting packet, beginning on page 18. A link is provided.

Photo: Google Street View.