Parking and Towing Town Hall Recap
On Wednesday, the Birmingham City Council hosted a Town Hall Meeting to discuss parking and towing practices and proposed updates to the city’s code.
The Office of the City Attorney presented the proposed changes during the Town Hall. Some of the key points include, but are not limited to, increasing insurance requirements for operators; clarifying proof of payment to help drivers with dispute options; prohibiting operators from towing/booting a vehicle while a driver is paying; additional payment options — the use of mobile and web payment systems; improved requirements for signage.
In addition to modernizing the way parking in paid for by phone, the updated ordinance also gives the Birmingham Department of Transportation purview to oversee parking signage placement and regulations.
Following the meeting, Councilor Darrell O’Quinn, chair of the Transportation Committee, said he was encouraged by the productive conversation and feedback from members of the public.
“There were definitely issues that were brought up that we had not heard before. It’s really great to get these comments into the public record,” O’Quinn said. “There were multiple people that referred to the ambiguity of the signage that refers to overnight parking. I think that’s really valuable to for us to hear. There will be additional opportunities for people to provide feedback as this process continues.”
O’Quinn said that the Office of the City Attorney will be taking the comments into consideration while they continue to finalize the proposed ordinance. The next step will be for that ordinance to be presented to City Council Committees. No timeline has been given for when this will be presented to the full Council for consideration.
“The Office of the City Attorney is actively working on this and communicated to me that they essentially had to put their pencils down, so to speak, and present the proposed ordinance,” O’Quinn said. “However, they will be going back to work on this with the feedback we received tonight and when they feel confident with the amendments, it will come before our Committees. That will be another opportunity for people to come share their thoughts.”
Below are several brief synopses of the comments from the public speakers. In total, 14 people shared their stories and thoughts on the proposed ordinance.
- Speaker 1: Owner of a bar in Five Points South. He said that he sees people being towed almost daily and believes the signs should be made less ambiguous. The signs currently do not define what “No Overnight Parking” means, but according to [parking lot operators] that is 2 a.m. Tow trucks often tow people right at the 2 a.m. cutoff.
- Speaker 2: The Town Hall meeting was her first time parking downtown since she was towed in February. She believes the new amendments to the ordinance will help solve the problem. She started a Facebook group for people impacted by towing companies. Someone shared their car was damaged when the towing company hooked up to an adjacent car. She believes Birmingham is a vibrant city but is reluctant to come downtown because of her experience with parking. She thinks the ordinance is a good step in the right direction.
- Speaker 3: He was recently towed by [towing company]. He stated that he does not want to put towing companies out of business because they do provide an important service to the public in certain situations. He is, however, adamantly against their current “predatory practices.” He was towed while he was in a meeting downtown about Opportunity Zones — he paid for parking on Park Mobile App but was 30 minutes late getting back to his car. This practice can create a negative spiral of events for people who don’t have means to pay — loss of job, missed appointments etc. Towing Companies are currently acting as the “Judge and Jury”
