Iowa City Today

The Coralville city council recently voted to increase parking fines throughout the city for the first time in more than two decades. 

Coralville has had the same parking fine rate since 1999 which was $10. The number of parking violations in the city has increased dramatically with residents not making a lot of fine payments or changes in their behavior, so the city council decided that increasing the fine to $25 would be a better deterrent.

"One of the things to remember are we remind people too, that if somebody has a legitimate complaint about why they didn't feel like they should receive a ticket, they can contact the police department," Coralville City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said at the Dec. 13 city council meeting. "The police chief or one of the lieutenants is very good about dealing with those or, for example, when a special event was happening, or something like that, that might cause them to have gotten a ticket."

Other municipalities in the area have raised parking fines to $25 with an added penalty of $5 after 30 days, which adheres to state code. The city council has proposed sending a notice to offenders after three parking violations, after which they can technically be towed for any more offenses. Police chief Shane Kron approved the increase to $25.

Kron spoke with the board about the issues that the department has been seeing. There have been disputes between neighbors about complying with parking laws, and there has been an overall increase in parking violations across the city, with people just choosing to pay the $10 to park overnight every couple of days.