UPDATED 7/13/2023, 9:30 AM:
The City of Bozeman says it will be holding a new hearing to discuss the increase of permit fees in the university and high school districts. The city says that due to an administrative error, the hearing was not publicly noticed in accordance with statutory requirements. The new hearing will be on July 25 after proper notice.
(First report)
The streets around campus look pretty empty and there are a lot of parking spaces to go around. But when the fall comes around and the students are back, residents around campus have an issue trying to find a parking spot.
“The residents will clear out a spot for their vehicles so they can put their car in place. They'll leave and a student will come in and fill in the spot,” said Bozeman Resident Steve Betters.
Cara and Steve live blocks away from Montana State. They say parking in the summer is a complete 180 than during the school year when the street is packed with cars. They wish the city would enforce parking regulations better to make sure that only those with permits can park on the street.
“So there was minimal to no enforcement going on of the parking,” said Cara Priem.
The city says that the increases in the parking permit price from $30 to $35 are for administrative purposes rather than for enforcement.
“The main reason for that was to cover the administrative operation costs of the program,” said Kira Peters, Assistant City Manager.
The city says they issue just over 1,500 permits in the university and high school parking district. 1,700 parking tickets were issued last year in these same districts.
“Everybody that gets a ticket, that revenue from the ticket generation goes to really goes to the enforcement efforts so they are kind of two separate things,” said Peters.
While neighbors say they would like to see more enforcement, the city says enforcement efforts won't change.
“More effective enforcement,” said Betters.
“Go back to the hashtags. It's simpler for us,” said Priem.
The city says in the fall they plan to hire a consultant who will study parking across the city as a whole.
“That really is going to go beyond downtown, and any parking districts were really going to look at parking across the city and what do we need to pay attention to,” said Peters
The new parking permit increases take effect on August 1.
