Here is the cities official response to our questioning of raising the price of parking meters!
Historically the revenue derived from parking meters and reserved parking has not been sufficient to adequately cover the parking program expenses or to allow for a parking reserve fund which means citizens at large who may or may not utilize downtown parking are subsidizing the program. As a result, the City has implemented a variety of efficiency measures to reduce the cost of the parking program which have reduced costs but unfortunately have not achieved the balancing of revenues to expenditures in large-part due to the low parking rates charged to its users. Therefore, City Council approved an increase in the meter rate from $.25 per hour to $.50 per hour which was also recommended to the City by its parking consultant and which is expected to assist in balancing revenues to expenditures and is consistent with or in most cases lower than what many other jurisdictions are charging.
Jeannine Robbins
Manager, Office of Public Communication
City of Ocala
Historically the revenue derived from parking meters and reserved parking has not been sufficient to adequately cover the parking program expenses or to allow for a parking reserve fund which means citizens at large who may or may not utilize downtown parking are subsidizing the program. As a result, the City has implemented a variety of efficiency measures to reduce the cost of the parking program which have reduced costs but unfortunately have not achieved the balancing of revenues to expenditures in large-part due to the low parking rates charged to its users. Therefore, City Council approved an increase in the meter rate from $.25 per hour to $.50 per hour which was also recommended to the City by its parking consultant and which is expected to assist in balancing revenues to expenditures and is consistent with or in most cases lower than what many other jurisdictions are charging.
Jeannine Robbins
Manager, Office of Public Communication
City of Ocala
What is your opinion on this, Ocala?