The city still wants you to move your car on street-sweeping day, but it won’t tow to make that happen.
Instead, it will issue you a $100 ticket.
Mayor Justin Elicker announced that new policy in a release issued Tuesday.
Previously, owners of cars illegally parked between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. on posted street-sweeping days have had to pay at least $139 to retrieve their vehicle — $50 for a ticket and at least $89 to the company that towed the vehicle. Sometimes they have paid storage fees as well (to the tune of an estimated $1.5 million a year).
Now it’s just the $100 ticket. For August, the city will first spend a month issuing warning tickets before implementing the fines. Sweepers will drive around cars parked illegally on their routes.
The new policy will save taxpayers money and save them the trip to the tow yard while still discouraging them from blocking the path of sweepers, Elicker stated in the release.
“I have heard countless stories of residents walking outside in the morning only to find their car is gone and then spending much of the day trying to track down their car and pay exorbitant fees to towing companies just to get their car back. There is simply a better way for us to keep our streets clean and make life a bit easier for our residents. I’d prefer that residents not put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the pockets of the towing companies,” Elicker stated.
“Street sweeping is beneficial to all neighborhoods in that it removes trash and leaf debris. It is also beneficial because it reduces the potential for storm drains to get clogged with debris, and it removes trash and oils from vehicles from the street. That trash and oils would end up in regional waterways and pollute the environment.”