ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) — Royal Oak has a parking problem. The city has received thousands of complaints from angry residents and visitors alike who say it’s diminishing the quality of life in the city. Business owners believe it is keeping people away.
7 Action News reporter Mike Duffy has been digging into the problem and got some answers from city officials.
Kizzy Gesinski lives in Southfield and knows about the headaches.
“I’m fairly certain I got a ticket once for a spot I thought I was legally in. I paid for that spot and I still got a ticket for it,” explained Gesinski.
Emilio Giglio, the co-owner of Alex Emilio Salon, knows the frustration.
“I feel it from clients. I feel it from my staff. And of course, I feel it as well,” Giglio explained.
He feels so passionately about the parking situation, he spoke out at a recent Royal Oak City Commission meeting.
“I’ve never been down there and bothered anybody about anything. But this, I was like, ‘I’ve had enough!’ They need to know that a long-time business owner is having a hard time. And a lot of it, we believe is because of the parking,” said Giglio.
He has a list of changes he’d like to see.
“Longer grace period, longer parking time, and then just make the app easier to use,” Giglio said.
He said otherwise, he loves the direction Royal Oak is heading.
“It’s going to take a little bit of listening and hopefully MPS, if you’re listening, let’s make some changes,” Giglio said.
MPS is Municipal Parking Services, a private company that runs the parking system in Royal Oak. They also manage parking systems in Flint and Hamtramck. Action News reached out for comment but had not heard back at the time of publishing.
Daniel Davis, the owner of the Funky 7 retail store feels the same as other residents.
“It’s horrible. Absolutely horrible. Everything you’re hearing form the merchants, from the people from the customers, it’s true,” explained Davis. “It just comes down to, you know, the idea that Royal Oak is not that friendly, parking spot area.”
He said he doesn’t want people to hesitate coming to the city.
“We love our customers. And we want to give them what they come for. But if they don’t come down, I can’t do it,” said Davis.
Royal Oak city commissioner Brandon Kolo explained Royal Oak does not want to see people getting ticketed.
“A lot of the major complaints I hear are the two-hour parking limit,“ said Kolo. “And the grace period’s the other issue. Right now if you stop and pull over for five minutes, if you don’t pay within five minutes, and you leave, you will get a ticket. What we want to move to is a 15 minute grace period.”
He said remedying these two issues would make a big difference.
“Those two changes alone will reduce 80 percent of the tickets in our city, which is what we want to do. We do not want you to get a ticket when you come to Royal Oak,” explained Kolo.
He said one of the main reasons the city chose MPS was because it allows people to pay after they’ve been parked for a time, before they leave their spot, thus reducing tickets.
“Ideally yes. It is a system that works better for you than any other system out there,” said Kolo.
However, most people don’t seem to know such a feature currently exists.
“That’s a messaging problem. It’s something we definitely need to improve on,” Kolo admitted.
He said the city is presently working with MPS to fix the problems.
“It's part of contract negotiations at the moment but I think we’re going to finalize those quickly. And once we finalize them, we can move right into implementing changes we think will make parking easier and better for the city,” explained Kolo.
How soon?
“I see change coming within the next month,” Kolo said.
