Atlanta officials are crafting an ordinance to strengthen the city's regulation of vehicle booting companies as a result of residents and visitors complaining of abuses.
The companies patrol private parking lots and clamp thick metal "boots" onto vehicles for nonpayment of parking fees. The standard fee to get the boot removed by a technician is $75.
The expense and the lack of regulation have some drivers steamed. Some say their vehicles are booted even after they pay, that the pay boxes don't give receipts to prove they've paid, and that the central offices of the booting companies are unresponsive to their complaints.
The ordinance, pushed by Councilman Kwanza Hall, would require parking lot operators to provide payment receipts and the contact information for the parking lot operator. The legislation is still being drafted and could change in the next few weeks as the city's attorneys dig into the issue.
Hall said one idea is banning booting entirely, as Gwinnett County did in its unincorporated areas in 2007 and Cobb County did in 2004.
"We're putting it all on the table," said Hall, who represents part of downtown and Midtown. "We're getting too many calls from constituents. We need a bill of rights as it pertains to this issue."
ParkAtlanta, the company that runs the city's on-street parking program, is authorized to put boots on vehicles in certain situations. But most complaints about booting are about smaller companies.
Residents and business owners have shared horror stories of vehicles being immobilized without cause in recent weeks. A variety of companies provide booting services for parking lot owners in Atlanta.
Hall said it may be impossible to determine how much money those companies bring in, or how many boots they put on vehicles. Most of the payment stands accept cash only, and do not give receipts. That leads to problems.
Wande Okunoren-Meadows, a director at a Forest Park day care center, said teachers taking young children on a field trip in downtown Atlanta came back from Centennial Olympic Park to find two boots on the 18-passenger van, even though they had placed $5 in the payment slot. The boot was only removed after the day care staff paid $75, Okunoren-Meadows said. An Atlanta police officer showed up but said he couldn't help because it was a private lot.
"This has got to stop," Okunoren-Meadows said.
Donnie Edgar of Cobb County said he had his own run-in with a booting company earlier this year during a visit to the Piedmont Park area. After finding a parking space near Woody's Famous Philadelphia Cheesesteaks on Monroe Drive, he walked across the street to Grady High School. He didn't see a sign warning him of what would happen next.
When he got back, a boot was clamped to his vehicle and he had to pay $75.
"I call it predatory booting," Edgar said.
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