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A Few Clouds New parking meters stir controversy
Opposing petition circulates in village
New parking meters installed through a pilot program in Cedarhurst in October 2014 are here to stay, with more — about 700 as an expected total — currently being installed on Central Avenue and side streets such as Washington Avenue and Spruce Street.
Based on the village’s 2015-2016 operating budget, $795,000 was generated from parking meters.
Municipal Parking Systems, a Minnetonka, Minnesota-based company installed the first 19 parking meters as part of the pilot program and are now installing the others.
“Someone brought the suggestion for the company to my attention,” said Village Trustee Ari Brown, who has overseen the installation. “I did my research on them and found them to be a good, solid company with lots of experience serving villages such as ours.” There was no cost for installation, but the company has an annual maintenace contract.
The meters are electronically operated and hard-wired in operation equipped with safety measures, accept credit cards, and can allow residents and shoppers to use the meters through a Smartphone app, according to Brown.
“I’m not tech savvy, but even I find the meters and app easy to use,” he said. “These aren’t like the muni-meters we had, where you had to keep walking back to feed the meter money to park. Plus they send the driver an emergency notification when your time to park is about to expire.”
Not everyone is happy with the new meters. A petition created by some business owners is being circulated through the village informing those who are unhappy with how the meters operate to contact the village directly to express concerns.
On the petition, business owners are “dismayed by the installation” because sensors on them don’t allow for people who leave with time remaining to benefit the next person to park in the spot to use up the time. They also say that those who remain in a spot could become over-ticketed by meter maids even if the driver wasn’t in the spot much longer after time expiration. They say this “alienates shoppers from visiting the neighborhood.”
