ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) — After months of criticism, the city of Royal Oak is making changes to its Sentry parking system.
The city extended the free parking grace period from five minutes to 15 minutes. Maximum time limits were also adjusted from two hours to three hours.
City officials are hoping this will improve user experience.
Before the time limit and grace periods changes take effect, the city will have to swap out all of the signage and reprogram the pay stations.
They expect that to be done by the end of April.
MI Nutrition sits right on Main Street. Their business model often requires customers to come in for a consultation about their fitness and health.
"A typical customer interaction lasts 30 minutes or so. That's more than the grace period," Ethan Freedman with MI Nutrition said.
Freedman is talking about the amount of time you can pull into parking spaces without getting charged.
On Monday, the city council voted to increase the time period.
"It is hopeful. It is definitely a step in the right direction, but we were all in the dark when they signed this five-year contract with Sentry to my understanding," Freedman said.
The city has received thousands of complaints from angry residents and business owners who say the parking system was diminishing their quality of life.
City Manager Paul Brake says they did studies and hired a consultant.
"Our hope is that with the quality improvements over time and with making these modest adjustments, the numbers of complaints should subside," Brake said.
Nicholas Cummins says over the past year, he's been served at least five parking tickets.
"It is infuriating. I am just trying to live my life and run errands," Cummins, a resident of Royal Oak, said.
He says these changes are a game changer.
"The grace limit is huge, I think that is probably the biggest one," Cummins said.
Brake says he would have liked to make the changes sooner, but here we are.
He says they are still working with the company to improve user experience.
"We wanted to implement that as soon as possible and then work our way through these other issues," Brake said. "Here we are in warmer weather, people are out and they are going to be visiting Royal Oak. The timing is right.”
On paper, the interim agreement expires after 120 days, though Brake says he anticipates the changes will be here to stay.
