Drivers who park downtown must now pay for on-street parking through 7 p.m. and the DIB plans to enforce its parking rules more strictly.
More changes are coming to parking in downtown Pensacola.
A new company began managing parking for the Downtown Improvement Board last week and with that, came changes to the hours when people must pay for parking.
People must now pay for on-street parking from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Before March 1, monitored on-street parking ended at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m., depending on the area of downtown.
The new company, Premium Parking based in New Orleans, allows people to pay for parking with text message or a mobile app, but the online payment system comes with some restrictions.
Users can only pay for a minimum of two hours of parking, which is $1. And any transaction using the system comes with a $0.35 fee.
People can still pay for parking with the traditional machines.
Curt Morse, executive director of the DIB, said the new technology offers a convenient way to pay for parking and is still affordable compared to other cities.
"I don't know where on the planet you can park for two hours for a $1.35," Morse said.
Morse said the decision to extend the hours of parking was made after analyzing how people were parking downtown.
"What we found were employees that were going to be on-shift at 5 p.m., they could come and park at 4 p.m. knowing that we're not going to enforce after 6 p.m." he said. "So now they've gotten their free parking, and they're in a prime parking spot on Palafox Street, which takes that parking space out for the night for someone coming downtown to spend money at the very restaurant they're working in."
Morse said enforcement of parking rules will become more regular, but pointed out that there is still free on-street parking a few blocks away from the high-demand areas surrounding Palafox Street.
"We're going to be more ritualistic in how we enforce," Morse said. "We want to build this culture of enforcement because we want people to comply because there's a lot of free parking. When anyone abuses it, it becomes problematic."
Morse acknowledged that people won't be happy about the changes, but he said there are also positive changes, such as eliminating the gates at the Jefferson Street Garage and the ability to pay for parking with a phone.
"Not everybody is going to be happy about some of the changes, like the additional hour of enforcement, but it is what it is," Morse said.
More changes are also planned for the Jefferson Street Garage. Morse said the DIB will vote next week on changes to the rates for the parking deck.
Currently parking at the Jefferson Street Garage is $3 for 24 hours, but Morse said if the DIB approves the recommendation next week, that will change to $3 for nine hours, $5 for 12 hours and $9 for 24 hours.
Morse said the DIB will always seek public input and holds public meetings before any change is made.
"The reason that we made these changes is because the consultants and our parking management team have advised us these are the ways to make the system contemporary and to hold people accountable," Morse said. "…I personally hate giving out citations, but it's part of enforcement because there are people out there that just choose not to comply."