photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Downtown Lawrence is pictured from the 700 block of Massachusetts Street looking northeast on Jan. 5, 2023.

Changes to how parking enforcement in downtown Lawrence works may soon be on the horizon, and the city leader in charge of parking control hopes they’ll eventually extend beyond Massachusetts Street and into other areas of the city.

As the Journal-World reported, the City of Lawrence is beginning work on a study to transition metered parking violations in downtown Lawrence from being treated like criminal misdemeanor offenses after a certain amount of time to a fully civil process. Brad Harrell, the city’s parking control supervisor, initiated the process, and he told the Journal-World Wednesday that a portion of the current process is actually already a civil one, at least to an extent.

Under the current system, people who receive a standard $10 ticket for a meter violation can simply pay their fines online — but that changes after 10 days, once a late fee is assessed. At that point, the citation becomes a municipal offense, Harrell said, and he no longer has the authority to void or dismiss a violation. “Long-form violations” for being parked too close to a stop sign or in a crosswalk at that point require people to appear in municipal court to appeal.

“If that late fee is assessed, the only way for you to fight that is to go to the parking docket any Wednesday at 3 p.m., so there is a brief window where it is under the umbrella of a civil (process),” Harrell said. “This would just extend all parking violations in downtown to a civil process.”

In part, Harrell said the study is intended to get a general gauge for how a ticket amnesty program that provides an alternative to the current system might work. That could take the form of anything from payment plans that aren’t tied to the municipal court process to community service, or even a “ticket forgiveness quiz” that provides a lower-intensity alternative for visitors from out of town.

“I think things like that could be really cool, just to help lighten what parking enforcement is, because a lot of people think this is some type of revenue-generating thing for the city,” Harrell said. “I envision this completely different. I am looking for the ultimate goal of what parking enforcement is, which is simply to encourage compliance and help turnover in our most desirable parking spaces.”

The long-term goal, Harrell said, is to consider making changes like this beyond just the downtown area. For example, he’s heard some substantial interest from various neighborhood associations around town about establishing a “neighborhood permitting program” that would limit the amount of off-street parking that can be taken up by non-residents of a neighborhood during certain times.

As part of the study, Harrell and the consulting firm assisting with the process, Dixon Resources Unlimited, hosted a community meeting Wednesday at the Lawrence Public Library. While there wasn’t much in the way of community turnout, Harrell said he’s still optimistic that he’ll generate plenty of participation to help inform the study.

In fact, Harrell said he’s already gotten some positive feedback in early meetings with local nonprofits, internal city staff with the municipal court and external groups like Downtown Lawrence Inc., the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, the library and Explore Lawrence.

There’ll be more chances for members of the public to give their feedback on what changes to the current process they might like to see in the near future. For one, Harrell said an online survey should be available on the city’s website by next Wednesday. The city will also host another community meeting from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 14 via Zoom. The Zoom meeting ID is 829 0479 8250 and the passcode is 623849.

“I truly think that having this public-facing transparency and everything is so important, but I think that the survey is probably going to help people determine questions that they might have related to it,” Harrell said.