This summer, if you break parking laws in the city of Pittsfield, you’ll have to shell out more to cover fines.The Pittsfield City Council recently approved increasing parking violation fines throughout the city. It updates penalties that in many cases ranged from $5 to $15. Effective July 1, most of the fines, like parking in an intersection, on a sidewalk, or double parking, jump to $30 or $50. Council President Melissa Mazzeo and Vice President Christopher Connell brought the idea forward. Connell says the fines were so low that the city’s police and parking enforcement employees weren’t citing for certain laws because it wasn’t worth it.
“We weren’t looking to raise revenue,” Connell said. “We basically we’re looking to change behavior downtown. One of the many things since I’ve been a councilor that have come up, especially on North St., is the fact that we have difficulty bringing more people in to visit the city because of issues with parking and lack of enforcement.”
The council’s Ordinance and Rules Subcommittee updated more than 30 violations. Connell, the committee’s chair, explained at a recent city council meeting that the committee decided not to change overtime parking fees as the city’s community development office works on implementing a downtown parking plan. Street parking is largely free, but without a permit is limited to three hours in most places downtown. A first overtime offense costs nothing, a second equals $15.
“So until we can get that in place and a lot of those signs taken down, especially in our downtown area, we left that the same,” said Connell.
The most expensive violation is parking in a handicap space. A first offense increases from $100 to $200. A second offense in a calendar year will cost $300. Parking in a bus stop is a $100 penalty. John Krol and Barry Clairmont were the only two councilors on the 11-member body to oppose the increases.
“I still just feel that some of them are too high,” Clairmont said before the vote. “I’m not going to spend a lot of time going into which ones and why, but I won’t support it.”
Following a $75,000-consultant study of parking downtown, last year the city council approved $500,000 to spend on implementing the plan, which could include electronic kiosks for metered parking in high-demand areas such as North Street. Downtown Pittsfield, a 165-member organization, participated in the study. Managing Director Kristine Hurley doesn’t think the fine increases will have much impact on businesses, but is hopeful metered parking could.
“The thing that we’re excited about, is the hope is it will make parking much easier for customers who are coming into downtown,” Hurley said. “We hear all the time that they drive down North St. they see that all the spaces on North St. are filled and they just keep on driving because they don’t want to bother to look elsewhere for parking. So we’re hoping that those more convenient spaces open up.”
North Adams has metered parking in its downtown.
The study found that between streets, lots and garages there are more than 6,000 parking spaces in downtown Pittsfield, less than 60 percent of which are full at any given time throughout the day. It found that 80 percent of employees park within one block of their work, while more than half the cars stay longer than 90 minutes. Hurley says the downtown parking plan should be in place in the next few months.
“We’re looking at around 75 cents an hour without a time limit,” Hurley said. “You will be able to get your first 15 minutes for free. So if you’re somebody who’s just pulling into the downtown to run into the bagel shop, get what you need and come out, you wouldn’t need to worry about paying for that 15 minutes. Beyond that you will be paying. The good news is the reason that we’re putting in these parking meters is about creating availability. So there will still be areas in downtown where you can park for free or for free for three hours or 90 minutes. So it’s not that everywhere you try you’ll be paying for parking.”
