Paid parking to be enforced beginning June 3 in downtown Amarillo

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) -After a 3-month period of giving out warnings to those who did not pay to park in Amarillo’s downtown zone, enforcement will begin the first Monday of June.

“On Monday, June 3, that’s the end of our 90-day grace period. That’s when we’re going to start actually writing citations for those that aren’t paying for parking through the app or through the phone system,” said Andrew Freeman, Director of Planning and Development Services for the City of Amarillo.

Instead of ticketing, the city has handed out over 1,700 warnings to educate people on the new policy before it’s enforced.

“If they did get a warning, they’d be able to call the courts or call city hall to get some better explanation before we started enforcing it,” said Victoria Jaramillo Medley, Court Administrator for the City of Amarillo.

Once in effect, the price of a ticket will be $25.

If you don’t address it within 12 days, it will double, similar to how the city’s timed parking citations operate.

Residents will have the opportunity to contest it through a new option.

“We’re actually going to have a parking hearing officer so people will be able to deal with their parking tickets in a quicker manner,” said Medley. “They won’t have to go through our criminal process, see the judges and all that. We’re going to make it much more accessible for the citizens.”

As a reminder, the ParkMobile paid zones include about 900 spaces located in a three block radius around the parking garage.

“You have Johnston to the East, third to the North, South is 10th, and West to Taylor is the boundary for the zone,” said Freeman. “Outside that zone, we still have free timed areas, it’s around 1,200 of free parking spaces. We also have approximately 900 surface lot spaces within the paid parking zone.”

If you have any questions about the app or the phone system, you can contact the City of Amarillo for help on how to use it.

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