Letter to The Editor: “Shocked” by Abrupt Parking Change
Williamsburg resident writes that lack of public input and communication suggests transparency issue with City
The opinions expressed are the writer’s and not necessarily those of the Williamsburg Independent.
To The Editor:
Thank you for alerting us to the city’s plan to eliminate the use of decals and guest passes and replace them with a digital parking system beginning MONDAY AUGUST 18th. Residents and property owners of the decal streets, located near the college, were shocked by this revelation because the current system is working and as far as we knew there wasn’t a need to change it.
Residents and property owners were even more shocked that they received no advance written notice of this change and there was no opportunity for public input. It is my understanding a resident of Indian Springs Road attempted to purchase decals and was told they wouldn’t be used anymore. This news then spread by word-of-mouth which, unfortunately, is the #1 or #2 way citizens receive information about our city according to one survey.
The lack of communication in this situation is as much about government transparency as it is about residential parking. Citizens continue to express frustration that we don’t know what city management and staff are planning until it is almost too late to oppose OR support a project. I say ALMOST too late because we can always appeal to our City Council who has the final say.
Even though we’ve asked City management to voluntarily expand their communications, we’re at the point where citizens and journalists must search for information or file expensive FOIA requests and then disseminate those findings. Rolling out a new parking system with little or no advance notice, with no instructions, and with no public input or discussion, is just the latest example of why the City of Williamsburg needs new city management.
We’ve heard the reason that current city management wants to implement a new parking system is to justify the high cost of the digital system purchased for the parking garage (street parking enforcement would be an additional purpose). I don’t believe anyone would have a problem with installing a new digital system in the garage, but there could be unintended consequences of using this technology to replace our decal and guest pass street parking, including:
Residents will be burdened by a requirement to register EVERY guest vehicle 24/7.
An online system or APP could allow someone who is not on a lease to register their vehicles for street parking. The current system requires each tenant to provide proof of vehicle registration and a lease agreement.
The digital system may not identify an address as either a homeowner-occupied or a rental property. The new technology may not detect rental properties limited to 3 or 4 tenants which could result in an incorrect number of vehicles registered to one address.
Residents & Parking Enforcement (PE) will not have an easily identifiable cue to help determine who should or should not be be parked on the street. Doing away with decals and guest passes essentially removes residents from the enforcement process and reporting violations is a critical piece of enforcement, particularly at nighttime.
Violations will be dependent on PE patrolling these streets 24/7, but PE does not work 9 p.m. - 9 a.m. There are a limited number of uniform officers on overnight duty and we would not expect them to patrol or respond to parking problems if there are more pressing police matters.
There has been no trial period for this new system and so no opportunity for staff to work on potential glitches. For instance, what if this new technology doesn’t save staff time because license plates on vehicles which are parallel parked, very close together prove difficult for the license plate reader to detect?
The emergency call center could be inundated with parking complaints day and night. Again, without decals, residents will not have a way to identify illegally parked vehicles and will be required to wait for PE or a uniform officer to come with a license plate reader.
One alternative to abolishing our current system, is to supplement the current decal and guest pass system with this digital enforcement tool (rather than implementing it as a stand-alone system). This would provide Parking Enforcement some time to evaluate the effectiveness of the license plate readers (versus a visual decal) and give residents a chance to provide feedback. Perhaps you could replace decals with an inexpensive, nondescript sticker. This would be the visual most residents want and the license plate reader should end the need for decal numbers assigned to each vehicle.
Sabrina Fairbanks
City Resident & Landlord
