Council to consider first widespread changes to parking rules in 15 years

City Council will consider a series of amendments to the city’s parking and mobility regulations on Thursday that would represent the first citywide changes to parking management in 15 years.

The proposed changes to City Code chapters 12-3 and 12-5 include updates to the definitions of parking meters and parking spaces, adjustments to rules governing loading and unloading zones, and new restrictions on the use of transit stops, bicycle lanes and electric vehicle charging stations. The amendments also propose modifications to civil fines, costs and fees for parking violations. According to city documents, the changes are not expected to have any fiscal impact.

The proposed amendments are the result of an evaluation of Austin’s parking and curbside management needs, taking into account the city’s growth, evolving mobility patterns and increasing demand for flexible curb space. The changes also would remove outdated requirements, such as placards for loading and unloading zones, and replace them with commercial hangtags to streamline compliance for businesses and delivery drivers. The intended use of spaces such as passenger pickup/drop-off zones, commercial delivery zones and resident-only parking areas could also be clarified if the changes are adopted by Council.

Lewis Leff, assistant director of the Transportation and Public Works Department, told the Austin Monitor that a Council resolution approved last year related to the enforcement of bike lane usage prompted a larger look at the portions of code related to parking. Existing plans and reports such as the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan and a downtown parking strategy study helped to shape the code changes, which will not result in immediate changes in enforcement procedures.

“We wanted to take the opportunity to look a little bit more broadly at why this code section overall could be reviewed and updated and modernized. The current codes have not really been updated on a broad scale since 2009,” he said. “We wanted to be able to look more holistically at how we operate our parking enterprise and how we operate on street parking in particular, to better reflect what’s going on with the code to what’s actually happening out in the community.”

In November, Leff and Joseph Al-hajeri, parking enterprise manager, discussed the proposed code changes with the Urban Transportation Commission, which approved a recommendation to Council supporting the changes. In discussing the ways parking practices have changed since 2009, including the growth of delivery services, Al-hajeri said a proposed 40 percent increase in parking fines was intended to prevent the purposeful misuse of parking spaces that would bring a relatively inexpensive penalty.

“Currently, we have on-street rates and people that park actually can receive a parking citation that’s cheaper than it is to actually pay for parking, and so it’s not really exhibiting the behaviors that we’re trying to have,” he said. “That’s the problem that we have currently with fines … that are focused around safety – you don’t meet those expectations to change behavior.”

Leff said the code amendments represent only the first step in changes to how parking is used throughout the city, with planners and other staff taking the next steps along with law enforcement and judicial representatives working to identify the best ways to put the new practices into effect.

“This doesn’t change our enforcement practices. It may provide some options in the future of how we want to achieve that but as of now the code change really is about enabling the flexibility through the city’s traffic engineer, our Transportation and Public Works Department, to achieve the changes on an ongoing basis that are needed to better manage the system,” he said. “What we would see if this were adopted is more community engagement about any kind of changes to days or times of metered parking hours. We would do some public engagement, engagement outreach around new code sections like electric vehicle charging, because if you’re parking in an electric vehicle charging space, you should be actively charging an electric vehicle.”

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