It took two tries, but Sandy Springs city leaders have adopted an ordinance regulating companies hired to disable illegally parked cars.
The new law allows the city to set rates for impoundment companies who operate in Sandy Springs.
Some of these so-called booting companies had been charging violators hundreds of dollars to have the metal devices removed, Police Chief Terry Sult said at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
“Without regulation, obviously, there’s an issue that I’ve run into in my history of charging exorbitant prices,” Sult said. “If [there is] a disagreement on the scene, all of a sudden the price would jump two to threefold.”
He said industry literature places the cost for booting equipment at between $189 and $700, and advertises the devices can be installed in less than a minute.
The city had considered a proposal earlier this month to cap charges at $40, but the issue was tabled when impoundment operators said the charge would put them out of business in Sandy Springs. The cap, however, would not be the lowest in the region.
Some homeowners groups have also expressed support for the operators, but none spoke Tuesday night.
The issue of booting has generated interest throughout metro Atlanta.
Cobb County banned booting entirely in its unincorporated areas in 2004, and Gwinnett County did the same in 2007.
Several years later, Roswell adopted an ordinance capping charges at $35. Marietta set a cap of $50 last year.
Atlanta is reconsidering its ordinance regulating booting companies. The city currently caps charges at $75, but City Councilman Kwanza Hall is discussing new legislation with the city’s legal staff.
Details have not been made public, but Hall said last week that he wants to protect car owners by requiring lot operators to provide receipts for parking. He said he also wants to provide property owners some protection from those who abuse their lots.
“We’re also considering whether to allow booting at all,” he said. “There’s a lot of voices out there in favor of that, very loud and very strong.”
Sandy Springs city leaders said Tuesday that they want to give private property owners the right to protect their lots, especially from heavy vehicles, but they don’t want violators gouged.
“I think regulation helps keep it a legitimate business,” said attorney Steve Curlee, representing Atlanta Impound. “I think it serves the needs of the folks whose vehicles are being impounded as well as the business people who need this service to protect their private parking lots from being destroyed by these heavy vehicles.”
He said operators must be on call at all times, and labor and mileage also need to be considered in the charge.
Another consideration is the disincentive these charges have on violators, Curlee said. He said large trucks should be charged more because of the damage they can do to parking lots.
The City Council voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance calling for registration of all impoundment companies, but it removed a fee schedule from the ordinance, opting instead to set those rates in a separate action.
The new rates would allow impoundment companies to charge $75 for most vehicles, $150 for vehicles from 10,000 to 20,000 pounds, $300 for vehicles over 20,000 pounds and $450 for large, loaded tractor-trailers.
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