Thursday, November 14, 2024–11:55 a.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
Rome appears to be ready to have a third party come in and manage parking in the downtown area, but the city ordinance would have to be tweaked before that can happen.
Discussions regarding having someone besides the city come in and enforce parking have been going on since late 2022. Kelley Ledford with the City of Rome told the Rome Downtown Development Authority Thursday, that a request for proposals went out and they got several bids. Those bids were reviewed with the parking committee and interviews were conducted.
“We had some really good proposals, and we narrowed it down,” Ledford said. “Then as we were getting ready to offer a letter of intent we realized our ordinance does not allow for third-party parking management.”
The ordinance, as is currently written, designates that parking enforcement is the duty of the police department or an employee of the City of Rome specially designated by the DDA.
Rome City Clerk Joe Smith said the city commission would have to amend the ordinance to allow for parking management by a third party.
“It will have to go in front of the commission, which I don’t think will be a big deal,” Ledford Added. “I think it’s just a procedural thing. We cannot offer a letter of intent to the parking company yet. Until that point, let’s work on getting this ordinance reworded and get it through the commission. Then, we will speak more about the parking company at that point.”
The hope is, that by going to a third party, the city at least break even financially instead of losing money on parking enforcement. Getting the DDA out of parking altogether is expected to help improve relationships with downtown businesses and customers. Ledford said that most of the companies they spoke with feel that Rome needs more of an ambassador-type parking program as opposed to an enforcement program.
