The Fayette city council last week gave approval to a suggestion by City Marshal David Ford to do away with three-hour parking ordinances. The affected streets will see new overnight parking restrictions instead.

The change came about as a way to possibly curb congestion on downtown streets near the square where parking has become crowded. Parking spaces along the 200 block of North Main Street, for instance, fill up quickly with students commuting to the university campus, and with area business owners and employees. Cars will often remain in parking spaces throughout the day, making it difficult for customers to park.

Chief Ford said that his department will no longer mark chalk lines on tires to gauge whether or not drivers are adhering to the three-hour parking limits. He cited a 2019 Supreme Court decision which ruled that the marking of privately-owned vehicles by police officers constitutes a Fourth Amendment violation.

“The three-hour parking is almost impossible to enforce,” Chief Ford told the council. “We can, in the state of Missouri, chalk tires. But then we’re basically setting ourselves up for a lawsuit.”

Instead, the city will remove the three-hour parking ordinance, and change the affected streets to no-parking during the hours from 2 to 6 a.m. The change will allow police to ticket or tow any vehicles parked for days at a time in those spaces.

“This way I can actually control if they park there at night,” Ford said. “If they leave their car there at night, I can write them a ticket. If they continue to leave it there…normally we tow after three days. That will give us a little more enforcement ability.”

The changes will go into effect on the following streets: the east side of Main Street between Davis and Morrison Streets; the north side of Davis Street between Church and Main Streets; the west side of Church Street between Davis and Morrison Streets; the south side of Morrison Street between Church and Main Streets; both sides of North Main Street between Elm and Davis Streets; both sides of South Main Street between Morrison and Walnut Streets; and the north side of West Morrison between the alley and Linn Street.

The idea of installing parking meters downtown was also brought up by the council, and may be considered in the future.

Dr. Joe Parisi, Central Methodist Vice President for Enrollment Management, who attended the meeting on another matter, told the council he would work to get the word out to students to be more mindful of downtown parking concerns.

Alderpersons approved the drafting of a new ordinance to replace three-hour parking with the new overnight restriction. Once drafted, the council must then vote to adopt the new ordinance. The vote is expected to take place at next week’s regular meeting of the city council on Tuesday, September 28.