Guadalupe Municipal Code Ch. 10.28 Parking Meters

For the purposes of this chapter:

"Operator"

means and includes every individual who shall operate a vehicle as the owner thereof, or as the agent, employee or permittee of the owner, or who is in actual physical control of a vehicle.

"Park" or "parking"

means the standing of a vehicle, whether occupied or not, upon a street otherwise than temporarily for the purpose of and while actually engaged in, receiving or discharging passengers, or loading or unloading merchandise, or in obedience to traffic regulations, signs or signals, or an involuntary stopping of the vehicle by reason of causes beyond the control of the operator of the vehicle.

"Parking meter"

means and includes any mechanical device or meter not inconsistent with this chapter, placed or erected for the regulation of parking by authority of this chapter. Each parking meter installed shall indicate by proper legend the legal parking time established by the City, and when operated shall at all times indicate the balance of legal parking time, and at the expiration of such period shall indicate illegal or overtime parking.

"Parking meter space"

means any space within a parking meter zone, adjacent to a parking meter and which is duly designated for the parking of a single vehicle by lines painted or otherwise durably marked on the curb or on the surface of the street adjacent to or adjoining the parking meters.

"Parking meter zone"

means and includes any restriction street upon which parking meter are installed and in operation.

"Person"

means and includes any individual, firm, copartnership, association or corporation.

"Street"

means any public street, avenue, road, alley, highway, lane, path or other public place located in the City and established for the use of vehicles.

"Vehicle"

means any device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported upon a highway, except a device which is operated upon rails or tracks.

(Ord. 35 §1, 1949)

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as prohibiting the City from providing for bus stops, for taxicab stands, and other matters of similar nature, including the loading and unloading of trucks, vans or other commercial vehicles.

(Ord. 35 §12, 1949)

This entire chapter shall be deemed and construed to be an exercise of the police power of the City, for the preservation and protection of public safety, and all of its provisions shall be liberally construed with a view to the effectuation of such purpose.

(Ord. 35 §15, 1949)

A. The following named and described areas, streets or portions of streets, and such other areas, streets or portions of streets as may hereafter be included in this section by amendment hereto, lying within the corporate limits of the City, shall constitute a parking meter zone, namely:

Guadalupe Street, between Third Street and the end of the 700 block on said street.

B. All frontage in the streets or avenues defining such parking meter zone is to be included therein.

(Ord. 35 §2, 1949)

The Chief of Police is directed and authorized to mark off individual parking spaces in the parking zones designated and described in Section 10.28.040 of this chapter, and in such other zones as may hereafter be established, such parking spaces to be designated by lines painted or durably marked on the curbing or surface of the street. At each space so marked off, it is unlawful to park any vehicle in such a way that the vehicle shall not be entirely within the limits of the space so designated.

(Ord. 35 §3, 1949)

A. In such parking meter zones, the Chief of Police shall cause parking meters to be installed upon the curb or sidewalk immediately adjacent to the parking spaces provided in Section 10.28.050 of this chapter, such installation to be placed not more than 2 feet from the curb nor more than 4 feet from the front line of the parking space as indicated, and the Chief of Police shall be responsible for the regulation, control, operation, maintenance, and use of such parking meters.

B. Each device shall be so set as to display a signal showing legal parking upon the deposit of the appropriate coin or coins, lawful money of the United States of America, for the period of time prescribed by this chapter. Each device shall be so arranged that, upon the expiration of the lawful time limit, it will indicate by a proper visible signal that the lawful parking period has expired, and in such space shall cease, and the operator, owner, possessor or manager thereof shall be subject to the penalties provided in this chapter.

(Ord. 35 §4, 1949)

A. Except in a period of emergency determined by an officer of the Fire or Police Department, or in compliance with the directions of a police officer or traffic-control sign or signal, when any vehicle shall be parked in any parking space alongside or next to which a parking meter is located, the operator of such vehicle shall, upon entering the parking meter space, immediately deposit or cause to be deposited in the meter such proper coin of the United States as is required for such parking meter, and as is designated by proper directions on the meter; and, when required by the directions of the meter, the operator of such vehicle, after the deposit of the proper coin or coins, shall also set in operation the timing mechanism on such meter in accordance with directions properly appearing thereon. Failure to deposit such proper coin, and to set the timing mechanism in operation when so required, shall constitute a violation of this chapter.

B. Upon the deposit of such coin, and the setting of the timing mechanism in operation when so required, the parking space may be lawfully occupied by such vehicle during the period of time which has been prescribed for the part of the street in which the parking space is located; provided, that any person placing a vehicle in a parking meter space adjacent to the meter which indicated that unused time has been left in the meter by the previous occupancy of the space shall not be required to deposit a coin so long as his or her occupancy of the space does not exceed the indicated unused parking time.

C. If the vehicle shall remain parked in any such parking space beyond the parking time limit set for such parking space, and if the meter shall indicate such illegal parking, then, and in that event, such vehicle shall be considered as parking overtime and beyond the period of legal parking time, and such parking shall be deemed a violation of this chapter.

(Ord. 35 §5, 1949)

A. Parking meters shall be operated in parking meter zones every day between the hours of:

1. 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. except Sundays and holidays from the last Sunday in October to the last Sunday in April the following year; and

2. 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. except Sundays and holidays from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.

B. Within the meaning of this chapter, the term "holiday" shall include the following days only:

1. The first day of January;

2. The last Monday of May;

3. The 4th day of July;

4. The first Monday in September;

5. The 25th day of December; and

6. The day designated and set aside by the President of the United States as a day of Thanksgiving.

(Ord. 87-272 §1)

Parking meter rates shall be 5 cents for each 12 minutes.

(Ord. 35 §6(a), 1949; Ord. 234 §1, 1983)

It shall be the duty of the Chief of Police to designate some member or members of the Police Department to make regular collections of the money deposited in the meters, and it shall be the duty of such persons so designated to remove from the parking meters the coins so deposited in the meters, and to deliver the same to the City Treasurer.

(Ord. 35 §9, 1949)

The coins deposited in parking meters are required and shall be used:

A. To defray the expense of proper regulation of traffic upon the public streets of the City;

B. To provide for the cost of supervision, regulation and control of the parking of vehicles in parking meter zones; and

C. To cover the cost of purchase, supervision, protection, inspection, installation, operation, maintenance, control and use of parking meters.

(Ord. 35 §10, 1949)

It is unlawful and a violation of the provisions of this chapter for any person:

A. To cause, allow, permit or suffer any vehicle registered in the name of, or operated by such person, to be parked overtime or beyond the period of legal parking time established for any parking meter zone as described in this chapter, or to deposit in any parking meter any coin for the purpose of parking beyond the maximum legal parking time for the particular parking meter zone;

B. To permit any vehicle to remain or be placed in any parking space and adjacent to any parking meter while the meter is displaying a signal indicating that the vehicle occupying such parking space has already been parked beyond the period prescribed for such parking space;

C. To park any vehicle across any line or marking of a parking meter space, or in such position that the vehicle shall not be entirely within the area designated by such lines or markings;

D. To deface, injure, tamper with, open or wilfully break, destroy or impair the usefulness of any parking meter installed under the provisions of this chapter;

E. To deposit or cause to be deposited in any parking meter any slug, device or metal substance, or other substitute for lawful coins.

(Ord. 35 §7, 1949)

It shall be the duty of the Police Department to enforce the provisions of this chapter.

(Ord. 35 §8, 1949)

Any person guilty of violating any of the provisions of this chapter, or performing any act declared by this chapter to be unlawful, shall be deemed guilty of an infraction, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine in accordance with the general penalty provision then in effect in the City, pursuant to Chapter 1.08 of this code, as amended.

(Ord. 35 §11, 1949; Ord. 86-271 §45)