STARKVILLE — Paid parking in Starkville will resume in one month.
Aldermen voted 6-1 at Tuesday’s meeting in City Hall to amend “stale and outdated” wording in the city’s parking ordinance because the last revisions were made in 1993. The new ordinance will take effect June 2.
Paid parking began March 15 on University Drive from Montgomery Street east to the Mississippi State University campus and through the Cotton District.
After outcry from the public about signage and that people did not know about paid parking, the service contracted through ParkMobile was temporarily suspended in late April.
Though a section in the previous parking ordinance reads, “All on-street and off-street parking in the city shall be free of charge,” Mayor Lynn Spruill said paid parking in the time period was legal because further down in the parking ordinance the regulations were “flexible” for the aldermen to amend.
“If you read further down in the body of the text, there is some flexibility for the board to make other arrangements, but that’s the reason we amended it,” Spruill said. “We wanted it to be clear because it was contradictory so that’s the reason we made the change — so there would be no confusion.”
The revisions the aldermen passed Tuesday night update the entire ordinance to include clarity on free and paid parking, fines for parking in bike lanes and fines for vehicles parked on public streets for more than 72 hours.
However, in the time that drivers were expected to pay for parking, 648 parking citations were issued by the Starkville Police Department, according to Chief Mark Ballard. The fines for the citations were $25, and Spruill said interested parties may contest their ticket or parking fees if they paid in that time period.
“If they want to come contest the ticket, they need to come to municipal court, and they may certainly do so,” Spruill said.
Failed motion to terminate contract
Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver made a case before the public and his colleagues Tuesday to dissolve the city’s contract with ParkMobile and stop paid parking altogether. He cited angry constituents and the public outcry on social media as a reason for stopping the service.
He said it is unfair to businesses who do have paid parking in front of them that not all of the businesses in Starkville have paid parking, adding it is important that the decisions the board makes reflects all citizens and not just business owners.
“Reading through the comments, I do believe we made a mistake doing paid parking,” Carver said. “… Businesses are struggling to keep their doors open, and anything we can do to help them keep their doors open and contribute to our tax base is a step in the right direction. Elected officials represent the constituency as a whole, not just business owners. From time to time, elected officials need to change policies based on the needs of the general public. If you took some time to read comments on (social media), there are a lot of people upset about this and saying they’re changing their whole dynamics now where they choose to shop in Starkville and which areas they’ll choose to patronize.”
ParkMobile charges for parking in paid spots by requiring patrons to scan a nearby QR code after they park.
The areas with paid parking fall into Ward 4, which Alderman Mike Brooks represents. Brooks said he spoke with business owners and walked the entire proposed area with Spruill and Ballard to see which areas were most in need. Brooks said paid parking is the way to go, but the city needs to do a better job at letting people know which areas require payment.
“We’ve got to do a better job of education, I do believe,” Brooks said. “We need to continue to talk to the mayor about additional signage, larger signage.”
Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty argued that other college towns like Oxford and Auburn, Alabama have paid parking. Despite being in favor of paid parking, Beatty said he believes it “rolled out too quick.”
“I think going forward we are going to need some type of paid parking,” Beatty said. “… I think we caught a lot of people off guard. I think we had a lot of tickets issued, and a lot of folks didn’t like that.”
Spruill noted the frustration that many had about the lack of adequate signage designating which spaces were paid, and that she would make sure that was improved.
Carver moved to terminate the ParkMobile contract and paid parking, and it was seconded by Beatty. The motion failed 5-2 with only Carver and Beatty voting in its favor.
Cornerstone completion date pushed back
In other business, the aldermen approved the date for the completion of Cornerstone Park to be pushed back 175 more days to December 31, 2022.
The need for a new completion date is due to supply material delays, specifically the current ration of concrete according to Spruill. The board unanimously approved the new open date.
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