Montclair Parking Primer

When my grandfather was a young man in Brooklyn, he used to drive to his factory and park on the sidewalk. By the time he showed up for work, all the legal parking spaces were gone and the only street spots left would be those that blocked the fire hydrants. He knew that the fine for parking on the sidewalk was less than for blocking a hydrant, so that was his illegal spot of choice. The moral of the story being, the more information you have, the easier it is to avoid costly parking fines (and get where you want to go).

Generally speaking, the parking in Montclair includes street parking, metered parking and parking in lots. There is no overnight parking—streets and lots—without a permit. Most meters are marked with their respective fees and durations. The lots also include signs to alert drivers to the parking parameters.

Here’s an overview of what you can expect when parking around town.

Parking at Meters: 

Metered spots must be paid for between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. You do not need to feed the meters between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. or between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Sunday parking is free. You may not leave your car overnight at a meter (between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.).

If you park at a broken meter, it is considered a parking violation; you need to go find a meter that works. You may call the MPA and report the broken meter, but you still can’t park there. Unless you use Parkmobile—in which case you may park as if it’s a working meter.

ParkMobile:

ParkMobile is a new service available in Montclair that allows you to pay for your metered parking through an app on your smart phone. “We are in the soft-launch stage as we continue to program the system and get the stickers and signage up. An official launch event is currently being discussed for early June,” says John Teubner, Executive Director of the Montclair Parking Authority. Parkmobile allows you to feed your meter remotely and even sends reminders to your phone when your time is about to expire. 

Parking in Lots:

Most of Montclair’s municipal lots contain metered spots as well as Permit Only spots. The permit spots are in effect for the same time periods as the meters:  8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. You may park in a Permit Only spot without a permit between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. and also between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Overnight parking (2 a.m. to 6 a.m.) is not permitted at all without an Overnight Permit.

Extenuating Circumstances:

Occasionally, parking enforcement is relaxed. This winter there were meters that were nearly impossible to access, with snow piled up around them. The parking authority’s policy is similar to many surrounding municipalities, says Teubner: “If the meter enforcement officer cannot get to the meter to check if it is paid, we do not expect the general public to pay the meter. That being said, we are working with the Township to get better curb to curb clearing of snow so that patrons can pay the meter.”

Additionally, there are often school or church events that draw big crowds. Teubner explains MPA policy as follows: “The MPA relies on good communication from any agency (school, organization, etc) with requests for relaxed parking. There are some regulations that cannot be relaxed (fire zones, handicapped parking, etc) but we do try to work with each ‘event’ to help things run smoothly. [However]we do not want people to get in the habit of parking illegally so we review each request as it comes in.”

For more information:

You can learn more about parking permits and other parking news on the town website: www.montclairnj.org and about ParkMobile at www.parkmobile.com.