Cape Coral eyes parking regs for rights of way
Cape Coral City Council gave staff the OK to move forward with parking regulations for commercial vehicles in city rights of way.
City Attorney Aleksandr Boksner said the proposed regulations, which would prohibit the parking of commercial vehicle within rights of way citywide, stem from a discussion Mayor John Gunter brought forward.
“We don’t have anything on the books right now to target that kind of conduct,” he said.
Currently there are multiple definitions of commercial vehicles in the land development code, as well as certain regulations in different locations. Boksner said he created a potential uniform article that would repeal the existing parking regulations throughout the code.
As discussed at Council’s workshop, a brand-new article will be brought forth to address parking restrictions.
In addition, a Request for Proposals is currently being advertised for a parking vendor that would come in and do parking enforcement throughout the entire city. With the new article being drafted, Boksner said they would be able to issue a uniform parking violation.
As far as the definition of a commercial vehicle, he said he knows what he thinks it should be.
“Capture anyone or anything parking on a city right of way — any type of commercial lettering irrelevant of the size of the vehicle — in order to cast a broad net. The tractor trailers, the dump trucks, those are a given,” Boksner said. “This is not about commercial vehicles being parked in residential properties. It’s parking on the rights of way in the city as it stands right now. I want to make sure I capture all of that.”
If the goal is to eliminate this type of conduct, the elimination starts with casting a broad net, he said.
Enforcement would be ticketing and towing, as they cannot afford any more sitting for days.
Many of the council members showed support for the new article.
Councilmember Jennifer Nelson-Lastra said she was all in favor of having third-party parking enforcement folks to manage this.
“I love that. It makes perfect sense. Wow, that is brilliant,” she said. “It takes the pressure off.”
Councilmember Bill Steinke agreed with the nature and intent of the action, but had concerns about casting a wide net.
“When we cast a wide net in an effort to catch a fish, often times a sea turtle gets caught in the net,” he said. “Make every effort we can not to get the sea turtle in that net.”
An example he gave was a plumbing contractor owner who has a passenger vehicle with ABS Plumbing on the door.
“It’s definitely a passenger vehicle but happens to have their logo on it. I would not want to have that person attending a Memorial Day picnic where there is not enough room to park in the driveway and it’s parked on the street and ticketed and towed,” Steinke said. “I absolutely believe in pulling it out of the land development code. I love the idea of a separate entity. I will scrutinize about words matter.”
Other council members wanted to make sure the community understands the rights of ways.
Boksner said he will bring the final draft to another council workshop, so they can spend some time going through the legislation.