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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinance 8629~~ =i: ~~ z ,~ ORDINANCE N0. D AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 26, "MOTOR VEHICLES. AND TRAFFIC," OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF FORT WORTH, TEXAS (1964)PAS AMENDED, BY AMENDING SECTIONS 26-103 AND 26-104 AND BY REPEALING SECTION 26-109 THEREOF, PROVIDING THAT THE PROVISIONS THEREOF SHALL BE CUMULA- TIVE, PROVIDING A SAVINGS CLAUSE, PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE, PROVIDING A PENALTY CLAUSE, DIRECTING PUBLICATION OF THE CAPTION, PENALTY CLAUSE AND EFFECTIVE DATE AND NAMING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. WHEREAS, congested traffic and parking conditions within the central business district require limitations on the parking of vehicles within said area, and WHEREAS, limitations of parking in said area is necessary and desir- able in the public interest so as to reduce congestion of traffic and encourage short-term parking upon the public streets in said area so as to permit access to businesses, services, and governmental operations by the general public; and WHEREAS, enforcement of said limitations on parking to encourage turn- over of parking spaces within said area through present means is expensive, inadequate, and unsatisfactory, and WHEREAS, use of metered parking spaces for long-term all day parking by workers in the central business district has increased thereby to the detriment. of the public at large in restricting their access to downtown businesses, offices, and services, and WHEREAS, it has become necessary in the public interest to provide for a restructuring of parking meter rates so as to alleviate this problem by encouraging short-term parking at metered parking spaces and to discourage long-term parking at same, therefore BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT WORTH, TEXAS SECTION 1. That Chapter 26, "Motor Vehicles and Traffic," of the Code of the City of Fort Worth, Texas (1964), as amended, be and the same is hereby amended by changing the wording of Sections 26-103 and 26-104 so that the same shall be and hereafter read as follows "Sec.. 26-103. Establishment of zones and maximum parking time therein, establishment of fees. There are hereby established Parking Meter Zone No. 1, Parking Meter Zone No. 2, Parking Meter Zone No. 3, and Parking Meter Zone No. 4. ~,~ ~ ~ _ The traffic engineer is hereby authorized to designate such parking meter zones upon any street or portion of any street where it is determin- ed, upon the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation, that the installation of parking meters shall be necessary to aid in the regulation, control or inspection of the parking of vehicles in the exercise of the police power of regulating, operating or controlling the operation of vehicles using the public streets. The parking of vehicles in such parking ~ meter zones shall be controlled and regulated by parking meters, installed and maintained by the traffic engineer, and located upon the curb immedi- ately adjacent to the individual parking spaces. In the zones so established, the traffic engineer may designate the maximum parking time for each parking meter, basing his designation upon the investigation above set forth. The fees for parking meter zones so established shall be as follows Parking Meter Zone No. 1. Five (5) minutes for the depositing in the meter of a five cent $0.05) coin of the United States of America, ten (10) minutes for the depositing in the meter of a ten cent coin ($0.10) coin of the United States of America, and twenty-five (25) minutes for the depositing in the meter of a twenty-five cent ($0.25) -~ coin of the United States of America. Parking Meter Zone No. 2 Ten (10) minutes for the depositing in the meter of a five cent $0.05) coin of the United States of America, twenty (20) minutes for the depositing in the meter of a ten cent ($0.10) coin of the United States of America, and fifty (50) minutes for the depositing in the meter of a twenty-five cent ($0 25) coin of the United States of America. Parking Meter Zone No. 3 Twenty (20) minutes for the deposting in the meter of a five cent ($0.05) coin of the United States of America, forty (40) minutes for the depositing in the meter of a ten cent ($0.10) coin of the United States of America, and one (1) hour and forty (40) minutes for the depositing in the meter of a twenty-five cent ($0.25) coin of the United States of America. Parking Meter Zone No.4 Thirty (30) minutes for the depositing in the meter of a five cent ($0.05) coin of the United States of America, one hour for the depositing in the meter of a ten cent ($0.10) coin of the United States of America, and two (2) hours for the depositing in the meter of a twenty-five cent ($0.25) coin of the United States of America." (Ord. No. 6668, S 1, 5-8-72, Ord. No. 7145, S 1, 3-10-75, Ord. No, S 1, 8-15-78) Sec. 26-104. Hours meters to operate, information to be shown on meters. Parking meters in the established zones shall regulate the parking of vehicles between the hours of 8 00 a.m. and 6 00 p.m., unless otherwise specified by sign, of any day, except Saturdays and Sundays and such other days as shall be specifically designated by the City Council, or when park- ing is specifically prohibited by street signs. Each parking meter shall bear thereon a legend indicating the days and hours when the requirements to deposit coins therein shall apply and the value of the coins to be deposited," (Ord. No. 6668, S 1, 5-8-72, Ord. No. 7788, S 1, 8-15-78) AND THAT Chapter 26, "Motor Vehicles and Traffic," of the Code of the City of Fort Worth, Texas (1964), as amended be and the same is hereby amended by removing Section 26-109 so that the same Section 26-109 shall be and hereafter is repealed. SECTION 2. That this ordinance shall be cumulative of all provisions of ordi- nances and of the Code of the City of Fort Worth, Texas (1964), as amended, affecting parking zones, except where the provisions of this ordinance are in direct conflict with provisions of such ordinances and such Code, in which event conflicting provisions of such ordinances and such Code are hereby repealed. SECTION 3. That all rights or remedies of the City of Fort Worth, Texas, are expressly saved as to any and all violations of the provisions of Chapter 26 of the Code of the City of Fort Worth, Texas (1964), as amended, and of any other ordinances affecting parking zones which have accrued at the time of the effective date of this ordinance and as to such accrued violations and all pending litigation, both civil and criminal, whether pending in court or not, under said Chapter or other ordinances, same shall not be affected by this ordinance but may be prosecuted until final disposition by the courts. SECTION 4. That it is hereby declared to be the intention of the City Council of the City of Fort Worth, Texas, that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses, and phrases of this ordinance are severable and if~any section, paragraph, sentence, clause or phrase shall be declared void, ineffective or unconstitutional by the valid judgment or final decree of a court of competent jurisdiction, such voidness, ineffectiveness or unconstitutional- ity shall not affect any of the remaining sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses or phrases of this ordinance since same would have been enacted by the City Council without the incorporation herein of any such void, inef- fective, or unconstitutional section, paragraph, sentence, clause or phrase. SECTION 5. That any person violating any of the provisions of this ordinance shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and each such person shall be deemed guilty of a separate offense for each day or portion thereof during which a violation is committed and each violation.shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed two hundred dollars ($200.00). ., .. - ; " ~- ~, . _ - , SECTION 6. That the City Secretary of the City of Fort Worth, Texas, is hereby directed to publish the caption, penalty clause and effective date of this ordinance for five (5) days in the official newspaper of the City of Fort Worth, Texas SECTION 7. That this ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after the date of its passage and publication, and it is so ordained. APPROVED AS TO FORM AND LEGALITY• C~l~~ ,.~ Wade Adkins g ~ ~ ~ _ ~ ',k, City Attorney Adopted ~-,~ ~~'~.~ Effective ~ ,-~j ,,c, s °N~STER FIIC 2 ry fG)7Y tANFlGER 1 ~~ ACCE~IJiJTINd 2 ffRAIVSPORTATION~PUBU~1,~,~y®~ (may of Fort Worth, ~zas and Council Communication DATE REFERENCE SUBJECT Revision of the Parking PAGE NUMBER 8/31/82 **G-5396 Meter Ordinance for 2 On June 24th, 1982, the Council was furnished with an IR recommending traffic operational changes in the Central Business District (CBD). One of the items which requires Council approval for ordinance changes and funding is a restruc- turing of the parking meter rates to be more in conformance with the CBD off- street parking commercial rates. Rate structuring of meters in the CBD is designed to encourage short term parking and rapid turnover. Parking meter rates are -being set in the core area to be cheaper than offstreet spaces for short term-parking and higher than offstreet lots for long term all day park- ing. Rates for ten hour meters which will be located in the CBD fringes will be set so that it will be available at a reasonable fee for any overflow from off- street all day parking needed to accommodate CBD workers. In_order-'to accomplish these ob~ectives,it is recommended that these parking • meter rates for the CBD be changed as shown in the following table. For compar- ison; the current parking meter rates are also listed below. ~__ _ '~""' Current Proposed -~~Zone~l --__. 1/2 -hour 15 30 1 hour- 30 60~ 2 hours 60 $1.20 10 hours $3.00 $6.00 Zone 2 1/2 hour 10 15 1 hour 20 30 2 hours 40 60 10 hours $2.00 $3.00 Zone 3 ~ v~~O 1/2 hour 5 ~C` '~, F a~ ~~~ 1 hour 10 ~ a~~~'~~°'F~: 2 hours 20 60~~~~ ~~~ ~'~~' 10 hours $1.00 $1. 0 ~'` `1,~~ The Transportation Engineering Division and the Police Traffic Division also recommend the deletion of Sec. 26-109 of the Fort Worth Code which presently prohibits the extension of parking times beyond the limit set on the parking meter flag. This section of the code is extremely difficult, if not impossible to enforce and is not presently nor has it been in the past prosecutable. With the proper setting of meter rates, this section should automatically become self-enforcing. As an incidental benefit, should the on street parking continue on meters at the present capacity when the new rates are set, the City would experience an approximate 80% increase in parking revenues. A more realistic revenue increase would be approximately 50%. Our present meter revenue income is approximately $500,000 annually. ..~; ,~ . «~ DATE REFERENCE SUBJECT Revision Of the king PAGE ?r-- NUMBER 8 X31/82 **G-5396 Meter Ordinance _2__ or_2._ In order to accomplish these changes,a new parking meter ordinance must be ap- proved and existing parking meters must be modified by changing coin time mech- anisms and informational plates. These changes will require the purchase of hardware at an estimated cost of $22,165. Sufficient savings are available in the Transportation and Public Works Department 1981-82 Budget to handle this expense. Existing Traffic Engineering personnel can accomplish the change outs over a six to eight week period of time once the hardware is received. Recommendations It is recommended that the City Council adopt the attached revised ordinance which establishes new parking miter rates as explained above. GG:jq Attachment ~ f ~ . G ~ ~ ~ , og SUBMITTED FOR THE CITY MANAGER'S DISPOSITION'BY~COUNCIL: PROCESSED BY OFFICE BY ^ APPROVED ORIGINATING ^ OTHER (DESCRIBE) DEPARTMENT HEAD• G y Santerr CITY SECRETARY FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ~~ PT~D ~ y`; (~ `\g+ RI1~I~,~M~lrt ~O. ~ CONTACT Walt Coo er Ext . ~ "' I DATE