Pay early, save money: How Wilmington is working to address its parking woes, complaints

Get a parking ticket in Wilmington?

Make sure you pay it early.

The City Council on Thursday approved reducing parking tickets to $25 for those who pay within 14 days of receiving the ticket, a measure supported by Mayor Mike Purzycki’s administration and an effort that’s been talked about for over a year in Delaware’s largest city.

Councilperson Maria Cabrera, who sponsored the ordinance, said the reduced parking tickets are a long time coming, having started work on the issue when she first joined the Wilmington City Council in 2013.

“The whole thing was pretty predatory,” she said. “We are a city of low means. We have a lot of poverty in our city. The poorest in the city have to take the brunt of this.”

Wilmington officials have resisted reducing parking ticket costs over fear that it would negatively impact Wilmington’s financial outlook, but the approved compromise reduces that financial burden to about $185,000.

RELATED: Wilmington plans to reduce parking tickets to $25 for those who pay early

Purzycki’s Deputy Chief of Staff John Rago has said officials originally estimated a "nearly $1 million" loss in revenue by reducing parking ticket costs across the board.

Wilmington relies on the revenue from parking tickets and enforcement to fund basic city functions, a dependence that a recent report found was 4.4% of Wilmington’s total revenue in 2022 – double the percentage averaged in most other cities.

Reduced parking tickets

The ordinance reducing parking tickets to $25 for the first 14 days is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2024, so long as the city gets all the paperwork completed, Cabrera said.

The bill also gives drivers an additional day to “protest citations,” from 20 days to 21 days.

The legislation indicates the financial impact will be about $150,000.

Appeals move to JP Court

Cabrera also touted other efforts Wilmington has made to reform parking enforcement practices and policies this year, including the city returning the appeals process to court, bringing back residential parking stickers and adjusting the towing policies and practices.

These changes are part of the reforms Wilmington officials announced over a year ago, which included promises to reduce parking fines; adjust street cleaning schedules; simplify the residential parking permit program; improve communication within the appeals process; and adjust towing provisions, among others.

Wilmington turned over parking ticket appeals to Delaware’s Justice of the Peace Court in mid-August, ending a decades-old administrative process that was riddled with issues for years. The announcement came following the one-year anniversary of the city last sending appeals to JP Court.

APPEALS MOVE TO COURT: Wilmington ends city administrative process for parking ticket appeals

Towing contracts revised

In May of this year, Wilmington opted to contract once again with City Towing Services LLC – a named party in a federal civil rights case against Wilmington and its towing and parking enforcement practices and a company with a history of charging drivers for its services despite $0 promises in its bids for city contracts.

THE LAWSUIT: 'Wilmington can't have it both ways,' federal judge orders towing suit to move forward

City officials said adjustments in City Towing’s contract would improve the inherently “fraught” system, but critics pointed out that many of those reforms were already outlined in earlier towing contracts or were required by law.

TOWING CONTRACT: Wilmington contracts with same tow company despite past problems with practices

Changes in the contract included giving drivers 60 days to retrieve their cars before the tow company can sell or scrap the vehicle (it was previously 45 days) and making communication between the tow company and city officials more robust to ensure the contractor isn’t taking possession of the car before the 60 days.

Residential parking program revamped

Wilmington changed the residential parking permit program in January to reduce the 26 residential parking zones – each having its own renewal deadline – to two zones.

One zone encompasses all parts east of I-95 with a June 30 renewal date. All parts west of I-95 have until Dec. 31 to renew, according to city officials.

GET OR RENEW YOUR WILMINGTON RESIDENTIAL PARKING PASS

The city also extended the residential parking permit to two years to help “reduce confusion and missed renewals.” Drivers previously had to renew their parking permits annually.

Updates to parking systems

Purzycki’s deputy chief of staff said that the city will also be replacing the metered parking in the downtown and Riverfront areas with a “kiosk parking system.”

ENFORCEMENT: How a downtown Wilmington business took parking enforcement into its own hands

Parking advocate Ken Grant previously expressed concern that people parking outside of DE.CO along 10th Street were not subject to enforcement, allowing drivers to park all day without paying or receiving a ticket.

“Once the new kiosks are in place on 10th and Orange streets, all of the spaces along those stretches near DE.CO will be required to pay for parking at the kiosk or through Park Mobile,” Rago said.

Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries at afries@delawareonline.com. Follow her on X at @mandy_fries.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Wilmington reduces parking tickets to $25 for those who pay early