One Dollar Per Hour Fees Go into Effect on Monday, March 10, 2008
ROCKVILLE, Md., January 30, 2008 – The Mayor and Council voted 4-1 during Monday night’s meeting on a series of measures regarding parking in Town Center, including activating parking fees beginning on Monday, March 10, 2008.
The fee structure will be as follows:
- Patrons will be charged one dollar per hour in the three City parking garages and at the 156 Town Center on-street meters Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. through 7:00 p.m. Parking will remain free of charge on weekends.
- Town Square employees will be charged $85 for monthly parking in the garages. The rate can be adjusted by $10 per month in either direction by the City Manager, if necessary.
The Mayor and Council also voted to authorize the City Manager to provide a discount of up to 10% off of the hourly rate for purchases of more than 10,000 hours. In light of the year of free parking that residents received to date and the decision to reduce evening hours charged during the week, the Mayor and Council also voted to remove the previously adopted free parking benefit for Rockville residents.
The vendor selected to provide the Town Square parking payment equipment was Parking Control Systems, Inc., a Gaithersburg-based company, and Digital Payment Technologies (DPT), which is based in Vancouver, Canada. PCS is the mid-Atlantic representative, installer, and service provider of the parking equipment manufactured by DPT.
The City has purchased 22 "Shelby" pay stations for the three parking garages with 20 of them now installed and operational. The parking system is auditable and will allow patrons to use coins, bills, and credit cards. They machines are networked in such a way that a user can use any pay station in the system for any of the parking spaces.
How the Parking System Works
For hourly parking, patrons can pay at any station in the garages. When time expires, patrons can add more money from any pay station in the system. The Rockville Police Department’s Parking Enforcement Officers are responsible for enforcement.
Employee parking will be managed through a system of coupon numbers. Employees working in Town Square may purchase a monthly pass at any pay station, using their coupon number, and be issued a hang tag for their vehicles. At full occupancy, 350-400 coupon numbers will be distributed to employees of Town Square establishments. This number is based on the assumption that employees will almost always be able to find an all-day space, and that not all coupon holders will use their spaces everyday. The all-day parking spaces will be located on the upper levels of the 355 Garage (Block 4).
The Mayor and Council approved on January 7 an agreement with Montgomery County that provides a mechanism for employees and patrons of the Rockville Library building to receive free parking, which will be paid by the County during periods when the City is charging.
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