At Tuesday’s City Council meeting the council approved a new parking fine schedule to create an “enhanced fine schedule” to be used during Cal football home games, according to Farid Javandel, the city transportation manager.
Installments of new Residential Preferential Parking, or RPP, program signs in zones B, D, F, G and I will clearly indicate Cal football home game day parking prohibitions while increasing the violation fine to $225 in new enhanced fine areas, according to the staff report. The schedule will go into effect during the 2019 football season and will cost $80,000. A resolution to increase the permit fees for the existing RPP program zones was not adopted, according to Javandel.
The meeting held a public hearing where “the proposed cost increase for RPP permits appears to have been the primary concern,” said Javandel in an email.
Concerns surrounding the increase in permit fees for the RPP program were mainly about the ability of existing parking staff, which has diminished in number, to enforce the new schedule and added restrictions, according to Javandel.
According to Javandel, this measure was introduced because of the increased traffic congestion and parking violations in residential neighborhoods near California Memorial Stadium on Cal football game days over the years. This is not the first time this issue has been brought to the City Council.
In the 2000s, the city introduced double fines for parking violations around campus — this, however, failed to adequately address game day parking availability for residents, according to Javandel. The city Transportation Commission proposed other solutions, which were voted down in 2017 by the City Council because of concerns over “fine amounts.” The approved measure that passed Wednesday was developed to address these concerns.
The revenue generated from the increase of fines during game days will be put toward the city’s general fund and will contribute to the cost of operating the RPP program, including infrastructure, permitting and enforcement, according to Javandel.
