The Detroit City Council approved a plan on Tuesday that will cut parking ticket fines in half for residents of Detroit. The cost of the tickets are to be reduced from $45 to $22.50, but they must be paid within five days.
The discount will only be available to Detroit residents and not suburban residents. The plan, which was approved in a 7-2 vote, was created to lift a portion of the financial burden from a city with a relatively high unemployment rate. The plan will also make downtown and other areas with metered parking more welcoming for residents to visit, as there is less harsh penalty for minor parking violations.
MT touched on the legality of such a decision in a previous report, as some experts questioned whether the city can charge different parking ticket fine amounts to Detroit residents and suburbanites based on place of residence.
Since the increase in parking ticket prices in spring 2014, the city has been criticized for being unfair in its ticketing practices. The issue of excessive parking tickets and late fines even resulted in a federal lawsuit in 2017.
Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Mary Sheffield originally proposed a plan to reduce the price of all parking tickets to $20, which was the price before the city went bankrupt in 2013. However, since this plan was not supported by the city council, the new plan can be seen as a compromise that will benefit Detroit residents.
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