After the Hoboken City Council debated parking regulations at their meeting on Wednesday night, they voted 7-2 to award a $1.5 million contract to a company to place 156 new parking meters at corners anywhere in town where visitor or business permit parking is currently allowed. The metered parking will apply to people who have no permits.
Right now, most streets in Hoboken are designated for residents only on one side and for permit parking on the other side. Permit parking applies to both visitor permits (for friends and relatives of residents) or annual business parking permits. People stopping into town who have neither a business nor a visitor permit can still park on the permit side of the street for up to four hours for free, but then must use a garage or meter or find some other place to park after that.
Soon, the four-hour free parking for them will be a thing of the past.
When a Roseland-based company installs the meter machines in the fall, visitors will have to pay a dollar an hour for up to four hours. This is based on ordinances passed in 2014.
Thus, people coming to town to eat, sightsee, or do business may need to pay the meters or find garage or private parking after these meters are installed in fall.
Before voting on the ordinance, council members debated whether people should be able to fill the meters all day, and discussed the enforcement of existing parking regulations that limit on-street parking to four hours without a permit.
Councilman Michael Russo expressed a concern that the citywide meters’ hardware might not regulate specific hour limits, leading to a need for stronger monitoring of parking spaces.
Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher clarified that the meters’ technology allows enforcement officers to know who is refilling them. Depending on how the council plans to enforce parking ordinances in the future, the technology could help the officers issue tickets.
Councilman Ruben Ramos vehemently opposed the resolution, fearing that visitors to Hoboken will have limited options if parking regulations become stricter. He said the Hoboken that has four-hour parking ordinances is “not the Hoboken I grew up in.”
“We don’t want to be that closed community,” Ramos said. “That’s what Hoboken has never been and never will be.”
Councilman Peter Cunningham argued that investing in the technology may not be worth it if it becomes outdated.
“In short time, we will have bonded a couple of million dollars on 156 meters that are going to become obsolete,” he commented.
Ramos and Cunningham voted against the resolution.
For more on this story, see the cover of this past weekend’s Hoboken Reporter.
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