Columbia drivers encouraged to start paying the meters as parking enforcement is set to increase
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The City of Columbia Public Works Department is hiring a team of parking enforcement agents and streamlining the meter system to encourage parking spot turnover and reduce traffic.
This follows changes in the city's 2025 fiscal budget plan that started Oct. 1. The plan transfers the Columbia Police Department's parking enforcement duties back to the Public Works Department. This change hopes to allow CPD's resources to go to other law enforcement duties.
"While police officers have to balance parking duties with broader law enforcement tasks, our parking enforcement agents will focus entirely on ensuring compliance with parking regulations," Columbia Public Works spokesman John Ogan said. "This means more consistent enforcement without the competing priorities that police face."
Columbia Public Works initially monitored parking enforcement but then later turned it over to CPD in 2020. ABC 17 News did contact CPD, but the department did not want to comment at this time.
While paying parking meters and receiving parking tickets can be considered a nuisance, Ogan advocates for the rule as tighter enforcement will ease traffic congestion and open up parking opportunities by dissuading parking spot squatters.
"The point of a parking operation is not to collect revenue, that's not why the meters are there," Ogan said. "They're there to encourage parking turnover so that within a block where there's a lot of high-density areas, where there's a lot of businesses where people want to visit, there's going to be a space open more regularly for them."
According to parking citation data from the city, in the previous fiscal years, the number of parking tickets issued generally reduced with a major drop-off between the 2023 and the 2024 fiscal years. Between October 2022 and September 2023, 18,815 parking citations were issued. Between October 2023 and September 2024, only 3,932 citations were issued, around a 79% decrease.
"We parked here a lot, we don't really usually pay," frequent Columbia visitor Koedi Nealy said, "I just know that it's not super enforced, so we usually just kind of like, 'we'll be quick in and out,' and there hasn't really ever been a repercussion of that."
The parking enforcement team will consist of four agents and one supervisor.
"Monday through Saturday, we'll have agents walking the streets," Ogan said, "They won't be targeting anyone, but if they encounter a violation, they write a citation at that time, we want to send a message to the community that the parking enforcement is coming back and we ask people to adhere to some of the ordinances and just pay their parking meters."
Over winter break, the Public Works Department will update time limits for meters to reduce confusion when paying. There are currently seven time limits ranging from 10 hours to 25 minutes. The update will slim down the options to 10 hours, three hours, one hour, and 15 minutes.
Applications for parking enforcement agents are still open. Since the Public Works Department is still working to hire enforcement agents, the police department will help with parking enforcement duties indefinitely.
"I'd encourage anybody who's been parking downtown and not paying, if you've been in the habit of doing that, maybe start to think about changing those habits," Ogan said.
