Ames Council to Consider Charging More for Bad Parking Habits

The cost of failing to plug a city meter or blocking a driveway could be increasing some time in the future.

 Ames Police Department staff have studied Ames fines and will ask the Tuesday whether they would like to explore raising overtime and illegal parking fines and perhaps create high-demand parking areas.

Currently, overtime parking fines for metered spots are $5 and $10 if they are not paid within 7 days. City Council will be asked to review increasing the fines to $7 and $12. These tickets cost the city about $11.12 per ticket to write.

Illegal parking fines for parking on the wrong side of the street or blocking someone's driveway are $15 or $10 if paid within seven days. City Council will review increasing this fine to $15 if paid within the first seven days and $20 if not. These tickets cost the city about $10.83 to write. The staff report said the $10 illegal parking fine isn't a great deterrent for illegal parking when it costs $20 to park in the football stadium lots on game days.

The council can choose to do nothing or ask staff to draft an ordinance to bring back at a future meeting. The staff has also asked if city council members would be interested in developing high-demand parking areas that have different penalties dependent on the demand for parking. Any changes would take three readings of an ordinance before they go into effect.

The Ames City Council meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall, 515 Clark Ave.