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ROYAL OAK — The Royal Oak City Commission has approved two changes designed to improve its downtown parking system.
The changes approved by the commission at its April 10 meeting include the extension of free parking, known as a grace period, from five to 15 minutes for on-street parking and an increase from two to three hours maximum for on-street parking.
The changes come amid negotiations between the city and Municipal Parking Services to improve the downtown parking system after complaints from residents and visitors about the number of tickets issued since the new system’s introduction.
“We have heard feedback from residents, business owners and visitors to Royal Oak that making modifications to the grace period and extended time limits for on-street parking will make a positive impact on those parking and visiting our vibrant community,” City Manager Paul Brake said in a prepared statement. “We understand that there have been some frustrations and challenges around the MPS parking meters, and ultimately, our goal is to make parking as user-friendly as it can be, and we believe that these two things will improve the user experience.”
Brake elaborated to the Royal Oak Review in a text message that the changes will be implemented April 20. The city will notify people of the changes through its website and social media.
Brake also confirmed that negotiations still are ongoing between MPS and the city to solve lingering issues, such as quality control and customer interface with its pay stations.
“The actual programming of the changes would be pretty quick, but there’s a lot of signage that’s out there; there’s also stickers that are on the bollards that they have the time limit,” Brake said during the meeting. “We want to allow enough time so there’s consistent messaging, that there isn’t any confusion.”
Mayor Michael Fournier said Royal Oak is now in a position to do something about its parking issues.
“I think we need to get immediate (help),” Fournier said. “It’s going on too long. We need to get (these) interim changes put into place while we rework some of the other elements on the term sheet. So it’s important that we start to see that relief immediately.”
The commission approved two items. One item was an interim term sheet with MPS that allowed for the parking changes to be made, and the other item was a motion for the actual changes.
The changes were approved unanimously, but Commissioner Kyle DuBuc voted no on the term sheet.
“I’m not convinced or satisfied that the direction of these negotiations are likely to resolve our many concerns,” he said.
Commissioner Brandon Kolo said DuBuc was valid in voting no on the term sheet, which Kolo had also been on the fence about, but stated he was voting yes so the immediate parking relief could be put in place.
“I’ll probably end up voting for this simply because it’s the beginning of the end and a path forward so that we can finally have relief that the city has been looking for, that the residents have been looking for, that the businesses have been looking for,” he said. “The term sheet that we just talked about gives us the ability to change the parking hours, which I think is highly important.”
