Tom Donaldson

The city is ready to begin preventing commuters from parking in residential neighborhoods.

City council on Thursday will have the first reading of an ordinance that will threaten towing or $50 parking fines to commuters who park in front of homes in certain areas of the city.

The parking restriction will be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“All we’re trying to do is keep people who live out of town from parking in front of our residents’ houses,” said Mayor Tom Donaldson, who introduced the ordinance at council’s Tuesday night meeting.

Residents will not be required to get a permit or a decal from the city to identify their vehicle is legally parked. Instead, the city will depend on residents to call in and report illegal parkers to city police, Donaldson said.

“Then when they have time, they will respond to check it out,” Donaldson said.

City police will use license plates to identify the origin of the vehicle.

Council members said they don’t want to burden residents into having to apply for a permit.

Council also said residents who have guests will not need to worry about tickets.

“We’re going to use common sense with this,” the mayor said. “We just want to make sure people who work in the city are not parking in our neighborhoods everyday.”

The city will place signs in the designated areas warning commuters of the enforcement. The city has a map of the restricted zone at the city building.

The zone was intended to cover areas within two blocks of commercial buildings.

Donaldson expects the signs and the threat of a heavy fine will discourage commuters from taking the risk of parking in neighborhoods.

He said the ordinance is intended to target those who had previously parked for free in city lots that were not monitored regularly.

The city last March began patrolling parking in the Center Avenue, Quarry Street and Farmers Market lots.

“We use to have the 55 spaces in the lot under the bridge filled when the city wasn’t ticketing there,” Donaldson said of the Quarry Street lot. “I put a $20 permit in that lot and the number dropped to 24. People instead moved into the neighborhoods.”

The ordinance will require a second public reading next month. It will take effect 45 days after that reading.

“It will be in place late March or early April,” Donaldson said.

City officials first discussed the idea of the residential enforcement last year. Solicitor Jim Coulter spent a couple months developing the ordinance.