Montclair Town Council On Parking Meter Woes: ‘We Hear You’

MONTCLAIR, NJ — “We hear you – and are acting now.” That was the message from members of the Montclair Town Council about the town’s running problem with “non-functioning” parking meters.

During their Monday meeting, the council acknowledged the parking meter issue, which has been generating complaints from residents and visitors.

The council released a summary of their action plan on Wednesday:

“The Parking Utility has begun removing the 120 individual meters in the Valley Road, Maple Plaza, and Grove Street surface lots and will replace them with pay station kiosks – statistics show that kiosks traditionally suffer less vandalism than individual meters. The kiosks will allow patrons to pay by credit card, coins, and mobile app. The 120 meter heads that will be removed from the individual meters will be used to replace non-functioning meters throughout town. Moving forward, individual meters in the remaining surface lots will be removed and replaced with pay station kiosks. By removing these meters from all surface lots, the Parking Utility will gain up to 500 meter heads in total, which will be used to replace non-functioning meters. Individual meters will also be removed and replaced with pay station kiosks in Watchung Plaza and the South End Business District.”

“The Parking Utility leadership team is currently pricing out new, more efficient, and technology adaptable meters from companies in the marketplace,” council members wrote in a statement. “Many of the township’s meters stopped functioning when the internet service provider upgraded its broadband cellular network, affecting township meters using older technology.”

Separately, the council also took action to review all ordinances to ensure excessive penalties are removed with regard to serving time in jail.

A plan to stop ticketing drivers who park at broken meters was considered – then nixed, Montclair Local reported.

Here’s what the town’s website says about what to do when encountering a broken parking meter.

Watch a video of the Oct. 19 council meeting below.

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