The city is getting tough on lot owners -- not so much on the big parking lot owners, but on those small businesses who charge a few bucks after hours.
Today, the city is enforcing its parking lot license ordinance. All lots, big and small, must have a $500 license or renewed license or they will be shutdown.
Deputy mayor Tom Crothers says, "We want to make sure everyone obtains a license and that the accommodations they offer to the motoring public are consistent."
That means hard surface lots with striped spaces, lighted areas and security.
The big lots like Kwik Parking have always paid their yearly license. Right across the street, small business owners have charged for parking and never had a license. There are a lot of ways you could look at this.
For instance, it's a fairness issue--if one lot pays for a license, all lots should pay for a license. Or you could consider it the price of success. A lot of people are coming downtown and a lot of parking lots are popping up.
Many are very small, like one lot with 12 spaces paying the same $500 the bigger lots pay. Some lot owners tell us they only make about $1,500 charging for space. The $500 license eats into that.
Others, like a daycare lot a block from the stadium, make less than that, but felt they had to buy a license anyway.
It's been the law for 50 years, just unenforced until today. And it seems most of the lot owners have stepped up and paid for their license.
The lot owners will have 18 months to make some needed imporovements, like the paving and the marked-off spaces and the lighting and security, which could cost them a lot more and perhaps eat what little profit they get from their $5 parking spaces.
