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Jun 06, 2023

Changes coming to controversial Royal Oak parking system

Royal Oak city officials negotiated changes with the vendor for its on-street

Royal Oak city officials negotiated changes with the vendor for its on-street parking system to give motorists a 15-minute grace period at meters and extend the maximum time allowed at meters from two to three hours.

City Commissioners voted 6-1 to approve the changes Monday night following a series of discussions with its parking vendor, Municipal Park Services.

Mayor Michael Fournier said the interim understanding with MPS should help address many of the complaints the city has gotten about the parking system..

"We needed immediate and significant relief," Fournier said. "Moving forward we will be negotiating on some of the other things that we need to reflect the needs of the city."

The changes are supposed to go into effect later this month.

Before, motorists using the meters had only a five-minute grace period, which is a free period of time at a meter without being ticketed. That free time will be tripled.

The MPS system takes photos of license plates and sends violators tickets by mail. Early on, the system drew thousands of complaints from motorists and business owners alike.

Over a year ago thousands of parking tickets were dismissed after MPS first rolled out its system, which takes photos of license plates and mails tickets to violators.

Many motorists have reported glitches and difficulties in understanding how the payment system operates when depositing coins, swiping a credit card or using a Sentry parking app.

"The camera system was a big change for people," Fournier said. "I think the increased grace period will reduce the number of tickets we’ve seen."

City Manager Paul Brake said in a statement Tuesday morning that city officials heard feedback from business owners, as well as residents and downtown visitors.

Changes to the grace period and maximum time at meters will have a positive impact, he said.

"We understand that there have been some frustrations and challenges around the MPS parking meters," Brake said. "Ultimately, our goal is to make parking as user-friendly as it can be, and we believe that these two things will improve the user experience."

City commissioners and staff will continue to negotiate with MPS.

Another source of complaints remains. The MPS camera system was unable to read license plates when motorists pulled in front-first into the angled parking spaces on Washington Avenue in the downtown.

That led to a requirement that motorists had to back into the angled parking spaces on Washington.

City officials expect to have more negotiations with MPS on that issue, but the back-in requirement remains in place.

Another topic for future negotiations is addressing glitches that mistakenly ticket motorists who have paid for their time or left spots while still within the grace period time frame.

"We want to make sure we do everything we can to get rid of false-positive readings that lead to tickets," Fournier said, "and we need to define what the standards are, and how to measure them and cure them."

More than a year ago, Royal Oak signed a five-year contract with MPS to handle downtown parking with their camera-enforced system and mail tickets to violators. The private company installed their own meters and infrastructure, and it splits parking ticket revenue 50-50 with the city.

Downtown business owners complained the system was complicated and flawed, and was driving away customers. The city Downtown Development Authority commissioned a parking study last year.

The study found 43 percent of motorists who used the new on-street meters ended up getting a violation either because they failed to pay within the first five-minute grace period or stayed beyond the two-hour time limit.

Many business owners reported seeing a drop in business of 20 percent to 50 percent.

"It's been a long stressful year," City Commissioner Brandon Kolo said of the fallout from the new parking system.

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