The Hoboken City Council is considering making a number of changes to how much residents and the public pay for parking in the city, including parking permits and metered parking, among other things, to overcome a $17 million deficit.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
At the governing body’s regular meeting on Wednesday, they will introduce five ordinances and potentially adopt two others, including an ordinance introduced to amend metered and pay station parking in designated business zones on Fridays and Saturdays to 12 midnight.
“Metered on-street parking within Hoboken’s business districts is currently enforced from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., despite substantial business activity and customer demand for parking beyond 9:00 p.m., particularly on Friday and Saturday evenings,” the local legislation says.
According to the ordinance, extending metered parking hours to 12 a.m. on those days within the business districts would improve parking availability and access for patrons of businesses operating during later evening hours.
In addition, Hoboken residents with valid resident on-street parking permits will continue to receive substantially discounted metered parking rates within affected zones during the extended enforcement hours.
“From a policy perspective, one of the goals there is to better align the time frame that businesses are operating in these areas with the time that the meters are actually on, to help facilitate better access to the curb and better access to these businesses,” Transportation and Parking Director Ryan Sharp said during the caucus.
“The second part of this would be that we’re currently working through a way to provide free parking for any resident that lives or has an address in the affected metered parking zones that are in this ordinance, and they have a valid resident parking permit.”
A second ordinance would increase fines for municipal parking violations.
That measure says that certain municipal parking violations are currently set below the standard $55 penalty established for parking under state law, with some fines not having been updated for over six years.
The fee increases are for no parking at a taxi stand or private property. Parking at a taxi stand could increase from $43 to $50, while parking on private property could cost violators $45 instead of $35. That number will also go up to $50 in 2027.
Further, for violating no parking in a school zone, the fee could be increased from $40 to $50, and violation fees for overtime meters could be increased from $35 to $45 until December 31 when it would increase to $50.
In addition, violations of emergency and or temporary parking would yield fines increasing from $43 to $50.
The ordinance stipulates that violations and penalties could be amended on an annual basis starting in 2028, in accordance with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or up to a 3 percent increase, whichever is lower.
However, the ordinance would bar violations and penalty fees from decreasing from the previous year.
Another ordinance would revise the Hoboken Parking Utility’s fee schedule for residential and visitor parking permits, with more increases across the board.
According to the ordinance, “residential parking permits are currently oversubscribed in Hoboken, with approximately 20 percent of streets having more than three permits issued per available parking space.”
If adopted, the parking permits for the first vehicle per household would increase from $52 to $120, for the second vehicle would increase from $104 to $200, and for the third, from $208 to $300.
Qualified individuals with proper documentation over the age of 62, veterans, and persons with handicapped designation would only pay 50 percent of the fee for the first vehicle per household.
For visitor parking, only eight-hour and 24-hour increment permits would be sold. Fees for the eight hours would increase from $7 to $10, and for 24 hours the fees would increase from $9 to $15.
The proposed increase to the residential parking permit fee to $120 per year for the first household vehicle equates to about $10 per month or roughly $.33 per day, the ordinance states.
Visitor parking permits would be priced below off-street parking options, according to the ordinance, only 25 to 30 percent of the cost park in a municipal garage for 24 hours.
Then a fourth ordinance would revise metered parking fees mostly applicable to non-residents in permit parking zones, essentially mandating that the city increase fees annually.
The per-15 minute rate for on-street metered parking for non-residents on the “visitor side” of permit parking zones, as well as some metered parking zones outside of business districts designated prior to 2019, hasn’t been updated since 2023, the ordinance states.
If the ordinance is approved, Hoboken would index these zones to the CPI to adjust parking fees to make them more predictable, incremental, and aligned with changes in municipal services costs.
According to the ordinance, meter rates outside of the city’s business district zones currently set at $0.50 per 15 minutes can be adjusted annually in accordance with the CPI published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The increase can’t exceed 3 percent in any given year and also can’t be reduced below the preceding year’s rate, but if the city does not adjust fees in a given year they can apply the increase in the next year per the CPI.
In addition, another ordinance would revise the fee schedule for temporary no parking signs for construction activities. TNP signs purchased for construction purposes would be priced 20 percent higher than other uses, the ordinance states.
“Temporary No Parking (TNP) signs are currently priced uniformly across most use types, with the exception of television and film production, despite construction-related uses typically requiring longer durations and greater curb space occupancy than other uses,” the measure says.
“Construction-related use of TNP signs result in more significant and prolonged impacts to on-street parking availability and curbside access,” so the city seeking to establish higher fees for TNP signs in these circumstances to “more accurately reflect the intensity of curb space utilization and mitigate impacts to Hoboken’s limited parking resources.”
The City Council will also hold a public hearing and final vote for another parking related ordinance on Wednesday, that would extend the hours of the pick up and drop off zone in front of the Rue School Building, which contains campuses for the Stevens Cooperative School and HoLa Dual Language Charter School.
The hours for this zone on Garden Street in between 3rd and Fourth Streets would now be consistent with other school pick-up and drop-off zones in the city, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Previously, the hours ranged from 7 to 9 a.m. then 2 to 4 p.m.
An additional ordinance up for adoption would add six on-street metered parking spots to the south side of Newark Street between Washington Street and Bloomfield Street on weekdays to make the street consistent with others in the business district.
Currently, parking is restricted there to official business of city government vehicles from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday.
1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano said in an email blast that he was not going to support the majority of increased municipal fees being proposed.
“We still do not have a proposed budget, yet fees for parking, fines, inspections, and other costs are going up. Making these increases before presenting a budget raises serious concerns,” he wrote.
“I have presented several options to address the budget gap and now await a response from the administration. Raising fees only puts a band-aid on the City’s structural financial problems; it does not solve them. I will not support the majority of these increases, which are being proposed all at once.”
The Hoboken City Council will convene for their regular meeting on Wednesday at City Hall, 94 Washington St., at 7 p.m. and the session will also stream live on the city’s YouTube page.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from Hoboken 1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano.
