MONROE - The Public Safety Committee took an initial step toward creating downtown parking restrictions at its meeting Monday.
Police Chief Fred Kelley suggested amounts for parking violations and general guidelines at the meeting in a proposed revision to a city code for downtown parking.
The new code includes definitions for "parking stall" and "row of parking stalls," partly because timed parking limits downtown will require drivers to move their vehicles to another parking stall in a different row when their time is up.
There is a caveat to that part of the proposed code. A driver may move a vehicle to another stall in the same row, as long as the total amount of parking time allowed has not been used up. In other words, time limits will be placed on rows of parking stalls.
The total amount of time for a parked vehicle in one stall, or row of stalls, has yet to be determined, but Kelley suggested a three- or four-hour limit.
Overtime parking ticket fees also have not been set yet, but Kelley is recommending between $10 and $20. Kelley said he used $15 as the average cost of a ticket, on which to base the estimated parking revenues for the 2010 budget.
Timed parking is to be enforced from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except legal holidays, which can be changed by Common Council action, even after adoption of the ordinance.
The ordinance draft contains provisions for temporary parking permits and reserved parking permits, which will also be set by the council.
Kelley made it clear that reserved parking permits will not be issued for parking around the downtown Square. Reserved permits will be used for spaces in lots and the downtown parking ramp.
A section of parking on the north side of the Green County Courthouse will be reserved for county employees. The county owns the land in the middle of the Square, where the court house sits.
The committee sent the first draft of a recreated Title 10 of the city code on vehicles and traffic to the Judiciary and Ordinance Review Committee.
The rewritten code will include new the city policy on parking downtown, but setting time limits and fees for parking permits and overtime parking tickets would have to be created by the council.
"This will probably be the first of five or six drafts," Kelley said.
He hopes to have the parking enforcement in place by Jan. 1, but enforcement requires signs by state law.
Police Chief Fred Kelley suggested amounts for parking violations and general guidelines at the meeting in a proposed revision to a city code for downtown parking.
The new code includes definitions for "parking stall" and "row of parking stalls," partly because timed parking limits downtown will require drivers to move their vehicles to another parking stall in a different row when their time is up.
There is a caveat to that part of the proposed code. A driver may move a vehicle to another stall in the same row, as long as the total amount of parking time allowed has not been used up. In other words, time limits will be placed on rows of parking stalls.
The total amount of time for a parked vehicle in one stall, or row of stalls, has yet to be determined, but Kelley suggested a three- or four-hour limit.
Overtime parking ticket fees also have not been set yet, but Kelley is recommending between $10 and $20. Kelley said he used $15 as the average cost of a ticket, on which to base the estimated parking revenues for the 2010 budget.
Timed parking is to be enforced from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except legal holidays, which can be changed by Common Council action, even after adoption of the ordinance.
The ordinance draft contains provisions for temporary parking permits and reserved parking permits, which will also be set by the council.
Kelley made it clear that reserved parking permits will not be issued for parking around the downtown Square. Reserved permits will be used for spaces in lots and the downtown parking ramp.
A section of parking on the north side of the Green County Courthouse will be reserved for county employees. The county owns the land in the middle of the Square, where the court house sits.
The committee sent the first draft of a recreated Title 10 of the city code on vehicles and traffic to the Judiciary and Ordinance Review Committee.
The rewritten code will include new the city policy on parking downtown, but setting time limits and fees for parking permits and overtime parking tickets would have to be created by the council.
"This will probably be the first of five or six drafts," Kelley said.
He hopes to have the parking enforcement in place by Jan. 1, but enforcement requires signs by state law.