The Lincoln City Council considered a proposal Monday to raise the city’s standard parking ticket fee from $10 to $15.
The proposal is apart of an “omnibus” ordinance package to overhaul parking guidance in the city, said the city’s Urban Development Director Dan Marvin.
If the new ordinance is adopted, it would be the first hike in parking ticket fees in about 25 years—since 2001.
The increase, Marvin told the council, could help cover costs for ticket administration and enforcement. He added, compared to peer cities, Lincoln would still be more forgiving to parking violators. While Omaha has a variety of different meter-fine charges, in Des Moines, it’s $20, Lexington, Kentucky is $25, and Kansas City charges $24.50, according to Marvin.
“I think that we are within the range of other communities around here by this increase from $10 to $15,” he said.
The ordinance package would also create higher penalties for parking violations in loading zones, rising from $10 to $25. Marvin said the goal of this hike is to discourage zone misuse that may block deliveries.
Further, Park & Go, the city’s parking enforcement agency, would expand their enforcement area. Under the proposal, the downtown enforcement area would expand to “G” Street, the nearby North Bottoms neighborhood would go Park & Go’s purview, as well as the parking lot at 27th and “F” streets, three lots in the University Place neighborhood, and one lot in Havelock.
These expansions would free up Lincoln Police officers to focus on higher-priority public safety tasks, Marvin said.
Three new specialized parking zones would also be created under he proposal: ride-share zones (for services like Uber and Lyft), long-term loading zones, and extended vehicle parking zones (for tour buses, for example).
The City Council is scheduled to vote on the ordinance at their next meeting, Monday, Jan. 12.