Parking meters in downtown Traverse City may become relics of the past.
The Downtown Development Authority is considering replacing individual meters with pay stations. Executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, Rob Bacigalupi, says there are several reasons.
“One is they accept credit cards. Just by replacing the meter housing, like on an individual meter, that doesn’t allow you to use credit cards,” he says. “You have better, real-time information with a pay station so it’s actually a more efficient method of enforcing parking.”
Another reason is to eliminate meter theft. The DDA says in 2012, thieves stole as much as $70,000 from parking meters. The thieves had copied keys and also broke open meters to gain access.
A request for $200,000 of parking meter equipment to address the theft was proposed at last week’s board meeting. Now the DDA board is mulling installing sturdier meters and pay stations or solely pay stations.
“We had been looking at pay stations,” Bacigalupi says “As a matter of fact, we have a pay station at the Old Town Deck. So we already have one. And we had thought we might roll them out in other parts of town. But this sort of added a new dimension to the discussion.”
The board could make a decision in February.