Jasper addressing parking ordinance, waives ticket

Jasper–The Jasper Board of Public Works and Safety waived a ticket for a downtown resident after he argued that language in a parking handout led him to believe he wasn’t breaking the ordinance.

Shane Van Meter, who received a ticket on Aug. 26, argued that the rules, as written, let a driver return to the same parking section once two hours have passed. City officials disagreed, saying the ordinance isn’t meant to work that way and isn’t enforced that way.

According to city ordinance 9.18.020, “From the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., no person, persons, firm or corporation shall park any motor vehicle or vehicles, whether motor driven or otherwise, on the following streets and avenues in the City of Jasper for a period in excess of two hours.”

The locations where it is enforced are listed after this section.

The next section, 9.18.030, addresses all-day parking with a permit or designated two-hour parking. It states, “From the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., no person, persons, firm or corporation shall park any motor vehicle or vehicles, whether motor driven or otherwise, on the following streets, avenues, and parking lots in the City of Jasper for a period in excess of two hours, unless that motor vehicle displays a current all day parking permit which has been issued according to [Section] 9.18.040. If such a parking permit is displayed, all day parking is permitted at any location on the following streets, avenues, and parking lots in the City of Jasper:”

A list of locations follows.

Here is a parking map the city has created that shows the quadrants with two-hour parking time limits.

Van Meter read a prepared statement to the board. It focused on four lines from the city’s parking guidance, which can be found in the city website’s documents section. The key line says that if a driver leaves and returns “within a two-hour span,” the driver must park in another section.

Van Meter said the phrase “within a two-hour span” sets a time limit. If the city meant to bar drivers from returning for the rest of the day, he said, the phrase would not be needed.

“The regulation could have simply stated that once a vehicle leaves a section, it may not return to that section for the remainder of the day, but that is not what the regulation says,” Van Meter said.

Regarding the ticket in question, Van Meter said he parked at 9:08 a.m., left at 10:49 a.m. and returned to the same section at 12:31 p.m. He said he had GPS records showing he left.

He said a similar ticket had been waived before. He leaned further on the handout he had and the ordinance’s ambiguity. “The issue is whether I can come back more than once in a day,” he told the board. “Because, right now, if I’m allowed to come back twice in a day, or three times, or however many, she (parking enforcement) can’t enforce that ordinance. Now, if it’s only one time per day, of course, she can, absolutely. That’s why the wording of the ordinance matters to the general public.”

The board interviewed Jasper’s Parking Enforcement Officer Connie Betz. She outlined how she tracks and records violations of the two-hour parking ordinance through a simple process. She walks her route and records license plates. If the same car is in the same spot or same quadrant about two hours later, she writes a ticket.

She recorded Van Meter’s vehicle in front of Just Whimsy at 10:44 a.m. and again at 12:48 p.m. She said she had no way of knowing if a car left and came back in between.

She also told the board she agreed the written rules are not clear. She said an older version of the city’s parking handout included the “within a two-hour span” line. The version updated in June 2023 (the map above) does not include it.

However, City Attorney Renee Kabrick said the handout does not decide the question. The ordinance does.

“That’s what the police department, Connie (Betz), and the Board of Public Works are enforcing,” she said. “Now, I understand you’re arguing that that’s not the right interpretation.”

Kabrick then leaned into the ordinance’s intent: to protect parking for people doing business on Courthouse Square. She said customers have never been the problem. The problem, she said, is people who live or work on the square and move their cars just before two hours run out, then park again.

Van Meter said that is not what he did. He said he went to work, came back and parked. He showed the board his GPS record to verify his statement.

After some back-and-forth, including Van Meter saying he would likely take the issue to court if he were ticketed, Mayor Ryan Craig moved to waive Van Meter’s $10 parking fine on the basis that Van Meter had brought the issue to the board. The motion was seconded by Nancy Eckerle and passed with no opposition. Craig said the city is working on changes to the ordinance and told Van Meter to email his office in a couple of months for an update.

In approving the waiver, Kabrick told Van Meter he had been informed of the ordinance’s intent and would be ticketed again if he violated the ordinance by parking in the same section for more than two hours within the regulated time frame.

In a follow-up interview, Kabrick confirmed the city had been reviewing its parking ordinances and said the city will likely change the language of the current ordinance. She said she expected action in the next month or two as the city considers further changes.

She said the new language would likely clearly bar parking in a single quadrant — a section on the same side of the street from corner to corner — for more than two hours in a day during enforcement hours, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Outside those hours, drivers could park there again.