City Council cuts back parking enforcement for First Friday events

Visitors to downtown Meadville who forget to feed their meters the next time they enjoy the extended business hours that come with First Friday events can rest easy.

At the request of a group of downtown businesses, Meadville City Council this week approved a slight reduction in parking enforcement hours. Enforcement will end at 5 p.m. — 30 minutes early — on days when First Friday events are taking place between June and April 2025.

“The Meadville Independent Business Alliance puts a lot of effort into promoting our First Fridays, which are 5 — 8 p.m. on the first Friday of every month (aside from January and July) and focus on additional shopping hours for community members,” wrote Victoria Dickson, the organization’s president, in a letter to council. “We are asking the City to consider this request of waiving parking fees at the beginning of our event to help encourage community members to shop locally without the worry of a parking ticket at the beginning of their shopping time.”

Popular First Friday events that have drawn large numbers of downtown visitors have included the Witch Walk last October and the Cookie Walk in February.

Council stopped short of following through on Councilman Jim Roha’s proposal to cut off enforcement at 5 p.m. every day.

Councilwoman Autumn Vogel said such a change should be part of council’s larger, ongoing effort to address parking, an effort that has raised the possibility of higher meter rates and the demolition of the Market Square parking garage.

Permanently changing the hours of meter operation would require an amendment to the city’s on-street parking ordinance, which requires metered parking to be in effect on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with the exception of legal holidays, according to attorney Tim Wachter.

Amending an ordinance involves a lengthier process than the motion approved Monday, including approval at two successive meetings. The existing ordinance allows council to make temporary changes like the one approved this week.

The move came in response to a letter from the Meadville Independent Business Alliance (MIBA), the group of city businesses that organizes the monthly First Friday events.

Not charging the usual 25-cent meter fee for up to an hour of parking could result in a loss of $8.50 to $17.25 per Friday affected, City Manager Maryann Menanno told council. At that rate, over the course of the eight affected months, the estimated losses could total $68 to $138. The First Friday event in December typically comes at a time when council approves free parking throughout the holiday season.

Menanno noted that it was more difficult to anticipate how much revenue earned via parking tickets would be lost.

Using similar estimates, Roha said that eliminating enforcement after 5 for every weekday would cut parking meter revenues by $1,900 to $3,890 over the course of a year.

“But if it attracts people to dine in our restaurants,” he added, “I think we’re ahead of the game.”

Given the fact that the city’s meters feature labels that set the hours of operation through 5:30, junior council member Tatum Gorney raised a relevant question.

“Will people know that change was made?” Gorney asked. “Will people in town realize, ‘Oh, it’s 30 minutes sooner now?’”

Community Development Director Renna Wrubleski said the absence of ticketing would help spread awareness.

Vogel said the businesses themselves should help spread awareness.

“I think that since it’s a request MIBA is making,” she said, “if we grant it, it’s incumbent upon them to then promote it with all of the First Friday promotions that they do.”

On the question of what parking enforcement officers would do during the 30-minute non-enforcement periods for First Fridays, Menanno said one possibility was raised during staff discussions of the plan.

Enforcement officers could still patrol, she said, but instead of issuing tickets, they could distribute promotional material notifying visitors of the non-enforcement periods with messages such as “Thank you for visiting Meadville.”