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Port Orchard to pilot license-plate readers; staff warns code changes may be needed to enforce timed parking citywide
Summary
Director Bond told the committee the parking enforcement vehicle is out of service and the city will demo a license-plate-reader (LPR) this week; staff highlighted ambiguities in code sections 10.12.060 and 10.12.160 that affect whether a vehicle must move a block or just another marked stall to reset timed parking.
Director Bond said the city's parking enforcement vehicle is no longer usable and staff will demo a license-plate-reader system on Thursday. The LPR would replace the current practice of chalking tires to record parked time, but the new technology reveals ambiguities in the municipal code that the committee must address before full deployment.
Bond explained the relevant code language: Port Orchard Municipal Code 10.12.060 prohibits parking within two blocks of the original space to avoid time limits (the city calls this "chain parking" downtown), while 10.12.160 forbids obliterating markings made by parking enforcement. "With that said ... we're demoing a license plate reader system on Thursday and looking at getting that hardware for one of our existing vehicles," Bond said, and added the LPR can detect minute movements of a vehicle and would require the city to define how far a car must move to reset the timed parking period.
Staff and committee members debated options: keep uniform chain-parking rules citywide (which would cite a two-block movement requirement), adopt a stall-based rule (counting moving into a different marked stall as resetting the clock), or create a measured minimum distance (examples discussed ranged from 50 to 300 feet). Committee members raised practical concerns about city and county employees who rely on nearby stalls during the workday and noted the need for clear public signage and outreach if rules differ between downtown and neighborhood zones.
Other enforcement considerations raised in the meeting: whether LPR flags for expired or stolen tags should be used and paid features the city might choose not to activate. Bond said some LPR features (expired-tag flagging, stolen vehicle alerts) can be used to notify officers but departments must decide which features to enable and pay for.
Next steps: staff will run the LPR demo, further evaluate code clarifications required (including whether a spatial minimum movement should be adopted), continue the discussion in March, and prepare materials for council consideration if code amendments are needed.
