CARTA takes over parking enforcement downtown next month.
It's a move that the principal players expect will increase revenue while providing a friendlier approach to parking enforcement.
Change is coming to downtown parking.
Jeff Boehm, Works Downtown, "I've gotten used to it. When I tell clients to come down and see me. I tell them where I am. I say, make sure you have 6 quarters in your pocket. That will get you two hours. that will be plenty of time."
Soon Jeff Boehm and his clients won't need coins for the most of the meters ...a credit card will do.
It's just part of the plan as CARTA takes over parking enforcement downtown.
Instead of police service technicians like this one, ten ambassadors with the Chattanooga Parking Authority will be checking for expired meters.
Along with the newly designed uniform...the men and women on foot will also wear many hats.
Tom Dugan, CARTA Executive Director, "They will be trained and knowledgeable in everything from restaurants and hotels and attractions and the history of downtown."
Besides training workers, CARTA's setting up the Parking Authority Office at the Electric Shuttle Hub by the Chattanooga Choo Choo.
That's where people can pay tickets, buy meter parking passes and appeal citations.
Brent Matthews, CARTA Director of Parking, "If you felt that there was an issue with the meters and you got a citation in error, you would be able to file an appeal here and we would deal with that ."
The new plan is expected to increase revenue since the ambassadors can concentrate downtown.
And the money will be used for parking expenses.
Dugan, "Hopefully we can create new parking facilities, new parking equipment, by using the funds that people pay at the meters and unfortunately with their fines."
The Carta Parking Authority takes over next month.
CARTA tells us the ambassador plan is modeled after a similar successful approach in Lexington Kentucky.
