Overtime, Other Parking Violation Fees Increase in White Plains (2024)

The penalties will rise $5 to $25 a ticket.

Posted Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 4:03 am ET|Updated Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 3:12 pm ET

The full list of violations, whose fines increased, include:

• expired meter time, unanswered overtime notice (for tickets given outside of City parking garages)
• parking beyond time limit
• improperly display/expired permit
• car other than passenger or commercial vehicle
• selling or advertising
• non-emergency auto repairs
• parked with engine running in a structure
• 15 minute, 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hour and 4 hour 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. parking
• parked rear of vehicle to meter
• not parked within lines
• 10 minute parking – pick-up/drop-off only
• Obstructing vehicle/pedestrian traffic

Fees for the majority of violations, about 52 others, will remain the same. Overtime penalties in City parking garages, which were , will remain at $10.

“We normally review all of our rates every year,” said White Plains Commissioner of Parking John Larson. “Basically, we’re looking at our rates and seeing if they are in-line, and what should be charged. Obviously right now the City needs revenue, as much as it can get revenue.”

The fee increases are expected to bring an additional $630,000 to the estimated $7.4 million that parking penalties are expected to garner this year. The parking department as a whole is expected to net $10.7 million this year to help offset taxes in the 2013-14 budget.

The City conducted a survey in January to see what other municipalities—in Westchester,as well as Greenwich, Stamford and Brewster—were charging for meter-time expiration summonses, which are the majority of the parking tickets written in White Plains.

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Most of White Plains’ neighboring towns—like Rye, Port Chester, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon and Eastchester—charged a least $25, whereas places like Ossining, Sleepy Hollow and Yonkers charged between $30 and $45, the parking commissioner said.

Larson then presented the White Plains City Court with his proposed fee schedule, which the court approved on April 24. According to Larson, the city court sets the fine amounts while the White Plains Common Council approves the maximum fine limit, which is no more than $100.

“We’re doing a lot to try and help people avoid getting tickets, and making it easier for people to pay,” said White Plains Mayor Tom Roach. “But if you don’t put the money in, you run the risk [of being ticketed]. We are a city where a nickel buys you three to four minutes in the surface lots, and six in the street. That’s enough time to run in and get a cup of coffee. It’s just a nickel to protect you from getting a ticket.”

Roach says that the City’s parking rates, at $.75 per hour in City garages and $1 an hour on the street, are reasonable, and that White Plains even offers a six-minute overtime grace period at some metered spaces.

“White Plains has always been a city that enforces their parking regulations and their laws, and I think that’s something people like to see,” said Roach. “My focus is to try and use technology to make it easier for people to not get a ticket.”

The City has continued , where patrons can pay with a credit card; has expanded its offering, where patrons can add time to their parking space over the phone; and has created

“We have seen a dramatic reduction in overtime notices, which is the goal,” said Roach. “We would like to see few tickets and better compliance with the rules.”

Since White Plains began using multi-space meters and pay-by-phone parking, overtimes summonses in City garages have dropped from 197,000 in 2007-08 to 108,000 this year—a reduction of 89,000 parking summonses over five years, according to Larson.

The parking commissioner estimates that the number of people who use the multi-space stations to have increased by five times in the last year. He said that the City is looking to install more meters near the County’s courthouse, and will expand six-minute grace periods to all metered spaces and multi-space parking systems.

“As we move forward with multi-space technology in the streets, hopefully we’ll see the same impact [reductions in overtime notices],” said Roach. “We want it to be user friendly. The electronics is easier. That’s gong to be a process, because it’s going to be expensive—so we’ll take it one step at a time.”

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