Everett ends parking ticket leniency
Published 10:49 pm Thursday, June 11, 2009
EVERETT — The meter on a popular parking ticket discount program in Everett is running out.
For years, people in Everett who pay their parking tickets within 24 hours have been able to reduce their fines by up to 75 percent, slashing $20 tickets down to $5.
The Everett City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to end the forgiveness program. It also agreed to increase penalties for repeat parking scofflaws.
The changes are part of an effort to get downtown office workers to stop parking in free spaces on the street meant for customers.
People in the coming months should also expect beefed up parking enforcement of free on-street parking spaces downtown, city spokeswoman Kate Reardon said.
The city also plans to begin standardizing downtown parking time limits to 90 minutes, Reardon said. Downtown now has a hodgepodge of time limits, including 10-, 15-, 30- and 90-minute spots, plus others that are one and two hours.
The city is expecting to issue about 27,000 parking tickets and to collect about $400,000 in parking ticket revenue this year. The council recently voted to steer parking fine revenues toward a fund to pay for $8 million in downtown street improvements.
Ending the discount program is expected to initially increase revenue, but revenues may level out as people change their habits, city officials said.
Every workday, hundreds of downtown office workers play the same cat-and-mouse game with parking enforcement officers.
While most spaces in the downtown core are time-limited, a survey of downtown Everett’s 2,000 free on-street parking spaces in November 2007 found hundreds of people ignoring parking rules.
The survey, which was taken during an event day at Comcast Arena, counted 800 cars parked in downtown spaces long after the time limits had expired.
Nearly half of the available free on-street parking spaces during the day were taken up by downtown workers, even though there were ample parking spaces in off-street parking lots and garages downtown, the study concluded.
The biggest trouble spots were along Colby Avenue, around the Snohomish County government campus and near the events center.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429, dchircop@heraldnet.com.
