Cookeville Council To Consider Overhaul To Public Parking Regulations Thursday

The Cookeville City Council will hold a first reading vote Thursday night on an ordinance seeking to overhaul public parking regulations.

Cookeville Assistant Planning Director Jon Ward said the ordinance has expanded police authority to enforce parking regulations.

“It’s also authorizes the towing of vehicles so the police department can tow vehicles out of the way to open those spaces up,” Ward said. “That’s the best way we think to deal with violations when you need to get a vehicle out of there.”

Ward said the changes will also increase parking violation tickets from $5 to $10.

The city’s current parking regulations haven’t been updated since the 1970’s.

During a Monday work session Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton questioned how the regulations would be enforced.

“If we are going to have an ordinance and want to actually help with the parking, it’s going to have to be enforced,” Shelton said. “It’s silly for our police officers to do it when they are already short anyway. It would appear to me that we could actually hire a person and their salary would probably be paid with the amount that we would recoup.”

Shelton said he’s not advocating for paid parking, but some sort of system for timed parking.

Changes in parking regulations would also include restricting corporate vehicles, trailers, and merchandise in public parking areas.

“One of the issues we noticed was that portions of our public parking were taken up by long-term parking for business interests,” Mills said. “We also noticed that materials were being stored in our parking areas. All of this was taking away available parking for the public and those who shop downtown.”

Thursday’s meeting is set for 5:30 inside city hall.