Town Proposes Doubling Parking Ticket Fines

We all know that slight feeling of dread: walking back to your car in downtown Nantucket and spotting that little slip of paper tucked under the windshield wiper. And soon, it might cost even more to pay for those parking tickets.

The Select Board is considering doubling the fines for overtime parking tickets on Nantucket from $25 to $50 per violation. A public hearing is set for the board's meeting on November 18th.

The proposal comes from a recommendation by the town's traffic safety staff, including police chief Jody Kasper, fire chief Michael Cranson, and transportation program manager Mike Burns.

"I support the recommendation staff made to the Select Board as it aligns with their downtown parking management goal to stimulate higher turnover," Burns told the Current.

The town collects roughly $400,000 in revenue annually from parking tickets. Increasing the fine to $50 would be the maximum allowed under state law.

The Select Board briefly discussed the proposal in September, when its members decided to hold the upcoming public hearing. Part of that conversation surrounded the cost of a parking ticket versus the fees for utilizing the town's valet parking service at 5 Candle Street, which costs $35 to park for a full day, and $55 for overnight parking.

"Why would we charge less than the valet?" Select Board member Jill Vieth asked. "It's cheaper to get a ticket than to park in the valet. Don't we want to encourage people to park in the valet?"

"So, first of all, the valet only holds 100 cars, and there's a lot more (cars) than that downtown," Select Board member Bob DeCosta responded. "Some people come downtown, and they only plan to be there an hour, and they're there an hour and 20 minutes, and they get a ticket. That's fine. I have no problem raising the rate, except I would want to just throw this out there. The first one is $25. The second one is $50, and so on and so on. Because there are people that get six or seven or eight of these in a day and just figure it's paid parking. The cost of the fine should escalate with the amount of time you take up a space."

Town operations administrator Erika Mooney told DeCosta that she did not believe an escalating fine structure is legal. That and more will be hashed out later this month at the public hearing.