photo by: Eric Ayres

City Manager Robert Herron speaks during a meeting of Wheeling City Council on Tuesday night.

WHEELING — Members of Wheeling City Council approved a new parking ordinance that will allow limited free parking downtown where meters have been removed, but the new enforcement system likely will not go into effect until April.

During Tuesday night’s council meeting, members unanimously approved an ordinance to amend the traffic code to allow for the new parking program. The new approach comes in the wake of the state’s $35 million Downtown Streetscape Project — an ongoing revitalization of the downtown in which new sidewalks, curbs, crosswalks, traffic signals, street surfaces, stormwater management systems and on-street parking spaces have been created on Main Street and are being created on Market Street and connecting streets in the business district.

As part of the design, the old parking meters have been removed and are not being replaced. Instead, the city will utilize new technology to “digitally chalk” tires, read license plates and issue overtime parking tickets for vehicles found to have exceeded free parking periods.

“The whole purpose of on-street parking in a commercial business district is turnover,” Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said. “We are receiving numerous complaints from certain businesses that rely on turnover and on-street parking where people are parking there all day that work in the downtown. So this system hopefully will correct that very quickly.”

City leaders noted that after the old parking meters were removed and new on-street parking spaces were made available, many workers in the downtown area have been parking in these spaces throughout the work day, limiting or even eliminating the availability of spaces for visitors to downtown businesses who only need the spaces for short amounts of time — typically two hours or less.

The city purchased two new electric vehicles that are being outfitted with automatic License Plate Recognition camera systems that read license plate numbers, mark the time and location of vehicles, mark the position of the vehicle’s tires to determine if it has not moved from that spot and generate overtime parking tickets when necessary.

Parking enforcement employees who read coin-fed meters or monitor the paid parking usage through the ParkMobile app’s system will be able to drive the automatic LPR camera cars around the affected areas periodically to allow the system to take its readings.

The new system will be in place only where there is free parking where meters have been removed. Otherwise, areas such as Centre Market and other locations where there are still parking meters will continue to utilize the traditional timed pay-to-park methods, which also create turnover.

Herron indicated that because of the efficiency of the new system, parking enforcement personnel should have more time to monitor areas where meters still exist.

City leaders said the new approach should provide a boost for the downtown, be good for overall commerce and greatly benefit both the downtown businesses and those who patronize them.

“I think it’s a credit to council for listening to the folks who have said ‘we want some free parking,'” Councilman Dave Palmer said. “So we’re giving the opportunity to have some free parking, but knowing that we can’t continue it all day because of the workers who will not adhere to this.”

Fines for overtime parking will remain the same — at $10 for the first violation and $20 for subsequent violations logged on the same day.

“There was mention of raising fines, but we chose not to do that at this time,” Palmer said. “But if it continues to be abused, it’s something that we’re probably going to have to look at, so I hope we don’t have to.”

In the coming weeks, signs are expected to be erected throughout the affected areas that notify motorists of the free parking limits. Most areas will be for 120 minutes, while some others will be for 60, 30 or 15 minutes, depending on the turnover needs of the adjacent businesses.

“We already have the signs, and they’re going to be up here within the next week or two,” Herron said.

Initially, city officials planned to begin enforcing the new parking rules around March 15. However, parking enforcement personnel are still undergoing training on the new system’s operation.

“The training is scheduled March 18 and 19,” Herron said, noting that the city will give notice when the enforcement of the new parking rules will go into effect. “The cars are here, the cameras are here and they’re being installed either this week or next week, and then we’re going to have the training.

“It’s probably going to be closer to April 1.”

In other action Tuesday, Mayor Denny Magruder noted that the city has received feedback from residents attempting to watch the live-streamed council meetings on the Wheeling City Government social media page. The mayor noted that viewers have commented that it is difficult at times and nearly impossible to hear what is happening during the livestreams.

“They’re not getting good audio,” Magruder said, noting that he and fellow council members need to speak directly into their microphones. He added that they are attempting to work out the bugs so that people who cannot attend the meetings can still see and hear what is taking place during the public sessions. “We’re really trying to fix this for you. Thank you for the feedback.”