Mayor David Roberts was joined by Hoboken Parking Authority Chairman Frank Turso at the corner of Bloomfield and Newark streets Monday as city workers put up the first “Resident Permit Parking Only” signs.
According to officials from the city’s Signal and Traffic Division, it will take approximately a month to erect all of the signs. The new signs are green with white lettering, which will be a contrast to the old signs that were white with green lettering.
In April, after almost six months of often heated public debate, the city passed a new regulation stating that one half of most city streets that are not covered by meters will be marked for “Resident Permit Parking Only.”
People with a business permit, temporary permit, or no permit at all will not be able to park on that side, and there will be no grace period for cars that do not have the resident parking permits. Residents will be able to park on both sides of the street.
The other side of the street is available for people with business permits, temporary permits, or people parking for less than four hours.
“This is an opportunity for us to give the residents of Hoboken a leg up when it comes to on-street parking,” said Roberts Monday morning. The mayor added that there are currently empty spaces in the city’s three municipal garages. The city will also gain more than an additional 1,000 parking spaces when the automated garage at 916 Garden St. and the conventional garage at St. Mary Hospital open. Both of those facilities are slated to open later this year. “This program will encourage more people to use these facilities,” said Roberts.
Once enforcement begins, the city will begin booting cars that are violating residential parking regulations. According to Turso, a car will be ticketed and booted immediately once it is found to be in violation. There will be a $100 fee to remove the boot. If the car goes unclaimed for more than 48 hours, the HPA will tow the car and the owner will have to pay towing fees.
Turso added that while the exact date of enforcement has not yet been set, it will not begin until the majority of signs are up. He added that before the city or the HPA starts booting cars, they will advertise the exact date when enforcement will begin.
He also said there will be a short grace period where warnings will be issued instead of tickets and boots. The warning period will get people acclimated to the new program, and it will also give the HPA and the city a handle on how much manpower will be needed to enforce the program.
Turso said that it has not yet been determined how long the warning period will last. “The sole purpose of this program is to provide more parking for the residents of Hoboken,” said Turso. “Now they are going to have double the shot of finding a parking space near their home.”
Exempt areas
In an attempt to strike a balance between the needs of residents and businesses, the mayor approached the City Council Transportation Sub-Committee with a plan to exempt several city streets from the “Resident Parking Only” condition.
The entire length of Washington Street will be exempt from “Resident Parking Only” zones. Other exempt areas include Hudson Street from Observer Highway to Fifth Street; Hudson Street from 11th to Fourteenth streets (where the Shipyard project and King’s supermarket are) and Bloomfield Street from Seventh to 14th streets. The city’s reasoning for exempting the zones uptown on Bloomfield Street is that downtown is close enough to the city’s municipal garages and shoppers could park in those.
It is important to note that the exempted streets will be marked “Permit Parking,” which means that persons with a business, temporary, resident, or visitor permit can park in the spaces, while cars without a permit will have a four-hour grace period.