ROYAL OAK, Mich. (FOX 2) - Changes to Royal Oak's parking meter rules started Thursday after pushback from residents and business owners.
The on-street parking grace period has been increased from five to 15 minutes. Also, the max time a person can be parked at a meter has been changed from two hours to three hours.
"We want to enhance visitors’ experience when they come to Royal Oak, and we believe these two things will improve the parking system and make it more user-friendly," said Paul Brake, City Manager for the City of Royal Oak. "We encourage customers and businesses to share their feedback with us, so we can continue making improvements to the MPS (Municipal Parking Services) system, and better understand what is working and what challenges exist."
Changes were explored after a study found that 43% of all visitors that used street-parking were ticketed - about 32,500 a month.
The changes only apply to on-street parking; downtown has several parking garages that have no time limit. Parking in the garages is free for the first two hours and 75 cents per hour after that.
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Royal Oak parking changes coming to city
After complaints for months, the Royal Oak City Commission has voted to deploy new changes to its parking. They include a longer grace period before receiving a ticket and an extended maximum time one can park in the same place.