With Parking Meters OK’d, Parking Laws Reviewed

OXFORD, Miss. (Oxford Eagle) — Oxford Downtown Parking Advisory Commission members reviewed the city’s parking ordinances Friday to see which needed to be tweaked to be more cohesive with the city moving to a paid-parking system this summer.

Last week, the Oxford Board of Aldermen voted to move forward with a paidparking system when it agreed to pay $386,784 for a new parking-meter system. More than 300 parking meters have been ordered and are scheduled to be installed around the Square by August.

The commission made several proposed changes to the parking ordinance Friday, including hours of enforcement and the fine structure for tickets.

If approved, the enforcement for paid parking will be 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday except holidays. The parking rate will be $1 an hour with the ability for smaller increments, such as .25 cents for 15 minutes. There will be no time limit as to how long a car can park, but it will cost $12 a day for a vehicle to remain in the same spot all day.

The only days all-day parking will not be allowed is on Ole Miss home football game days. The commission agreed to recommend a three-hour maximum on those days because many people would elect to put in $12 and stay the whole day parked on the Square and walk to the University of Mississippi.

“We can program the meters to only accept $3 for three hours,” Parking Manager Matt Davis said. “They would have to walk back from the Grove to put in more money.”

As the ordinance reads now, the first ticket for overtime parking is $10; second is $25; third and subsequent are $50. The commission agreed to add an additional step, making the first two tickets $10 each, with the third being $25 and the fourth and subsequent tickets will be $50, within a 12month period.

A vehicle could receive up to three overtime parking tickets per day and after four more tickets within a 12month period, the city may boot or tow a vehicle.

“We would want to use the boot first,” Mayor Pat Patterson said. “This will affect a lot of students and we don’t necessarily need to give them that extra expense of towing.”

If a vehicle is booted, the car owner will have to pay all unpaid tickets and a $75 fee to remove the boot.

Game day fines were recommended to remain the same at $50 for the first violation; $75 for the second and $100 for three or more.

Park Oxford, headed by Davis, was approved to enforce overtime parking until the meters are installed by using hand-held digital devices that may include a digital “chalk” that will tell the enforcer how long the vehicle has been in a parking space.

The recommendations will be presented to the aldermen for their review and vote after two ordinance readings and a public hearing.

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