PRESENTER: Presenter
Garry Ford, Transportation and Capital Improvements Director
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SUBJECT: Title
Approval of the second and final reading of an ordinance to amend Section 126-346 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of New Braunfels to revise citation no parking zones to be tow-away zones.
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DEPARTMENT: Transportation and Capital Improvements
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COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: All
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
City Council unanimously approved the first reading on September 12, 2022.
Staff is working on an effort to clean up the parking ordinances. This includes identifying changes to be made to existing code, outdated code to be removed, and overlaps between no parking zones, parking by permit areas, and loading zones that need to be addressed. During this effort, staff decided to investigate the use of citation zones versus tow-away zones in the no parking zone ordinances.
The Code of Ordinances for the City of New Braunfels lists 136 no parking zones in Section 126-346 (e) and (f). The majority of these no parking zones are tow-away zones where offending vehicles are towed from the street, and standard procedure for the past several years has been to make all new no parking zones tow-away zones. The rest are citation zones where citations are issued to the offending vehicle by the police. These citation zones were established with older ordinances before the standard procedure was established. In order to be consistent in both the enforcement of no parking zones and the signs posted to identify them, staff is pursuing the conversion of citation zones to tow-away zones. There are 20 citation zones that are being proposed to be changed to tow-away zones. Of these, 9 are associated with the Railroad Quiet Zones. Due to the safety hazards that would be associated with a vehicle parked in proximity to a Quiet Zone, towing of the offending vehicle would be preferable to citations alone.
ISSUE:
The no parking ordinances for the City of New Braunfels are not consistent between citation zones and tow-away zones.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Traffic control signs cost approximately $150 each. Sufficient funding is available in the FY 2023 approved Streets and Drainage budget.Recommendation
RECOMMENDATION:
Transportation and Traffic Advisory Board
The Transportation and Traffic Advisory Board unanimously recommended approval at their August 11, 2022 meeting.
Staff
Staff recommends revising the selected citation no parking zones to be tow-away zones.