Say what? East Lansing to ease up on overnight parking rule

EAST LANSING -- East Lansing residents will get a small reprieve from the city’s rigorous parking rules.

City council voted to amend an ordinance that prohibits parking on city streets between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. The change allows residents to request an exemption up to 20 times a year to park overnight on city streets.

Deputy Police Chief Steve Gonzalez said the change better reflects current practice. Currently, the police department makes exceptions for people who request the temporary permission.

“In 2016, we took 3,359 requests to be exempt from the ordinance,” Gonzalez said.

About 82% of the authorizations granted were for residents who requested exemptions for one to five nights a year.

“The major reason is because people are having guests for a night or two,” Gonzalez said.

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Exemptions in 2016 were requested largely during the fall, with the highest occurrence, 719 requests, in October. The requests stemmed from full-time residents and students alike.

“It really does span the entire city when we looked at where the requests were coming from,” Gonzalez said.

Councilwoman Shanna Draheim recommended the change after receiving inquiries from residents about vehicles parked in the roadway.

"When I realized that our ordinance didn’t match our informal policy I recommended we update the ordinance," Draheim said.

"It comes up. People have families, visitors or friends in town that need parking.”

Gonzalez said one of the major duties of parking officers who work overnight is to enforce that 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. parking prohibition. A violation of the ordinance costs $35 a pop.

Gonzalez doesn’t expect priorities for overnight parking enforcement to change with the ordinance amendment.

"It just simply puts down in the ordinance that we do allow for authorizations or exemptions," Gonzalez said.

The new ordinance allows 20 exemptions per address per year. People must provide police with the make, model and license plate of their vehicle and where it will be parked before 2 a.m. The non-emergency line at the police department is 351-4220.

The parking exemption can be denied if snow plowing is expected the next day.

Contact Reporter Beth LeBlanc at 517-377-1167 or eleblanc@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LSJBethLeBlanc.