Bloomington Considers Taking Action Against Drivers With Large Unpaid Parking Fines

BLOOMINGTON (25News Now) – Several solutions are being proposed to address downtown Bloomington’s parking woes, including a proposal to increase the likelihood the city will tow vehicles belonging to drivers who have racked up the highest parking fines.

The city owes more than $350,000 in parking fines, and a small group of 47 people owes more than $1,000 each, according to a city staff report.

Currently, the municipality must personally serve notices to holders of five unpaid parking tickets that their vehicles will be towed. The municipality does not have enough staff to serve these notices, which is why an amendment presented to city council Monday night would allow the municipality to send these notices by mail.

The city responded to the proposal in an email to downtown merchants.

“To be clear, this is not an attempt to increase towing rates or target individuals who occasionally receive fines. We also recognize that cars are important to people’s livelihoods and that those eligible for towing will be able to work out payment arrangements to avoid having their cars towed,” the city said in its email. “But we have all seen individuals choose not to take advantage of long-term parking options and ignore fines. The goal is to pursue this group in order to free up spaces for visitors to our downtown establishments.”

The city council will also consider increasing the maximum parking time in the city centre from 90 minutes to two hours.

“We’ve heard from many of you, including restaurant and personal service providers, that 90 minutes isn’t enough time for your customers. We hope this helps address some of the issues we’ve heard,” city staff said in their email to downtown merchants.

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