How the heck does parking work in Covington?

Parking can be weird in Covington. Even if you know why, it’s still easy to get frustrated with the state of things, especially if you’re in the north end of town where paid parking dominates. It can be difficult to keep track of where you can and can’t park, what to do if you get a citation and how to set up resident-only parking on your street.

Let’s unpack how it all works.

North of 12th Street is where you can find meters, paid public parking garages and other forms of regulation that are more involved than in the southern parts of the city. This is due largely to the proximity of the Ohio River and the risk of people from Ohio coming over one of the bridges to park during Reds and Bengals games.

Businesses, restaurants, hotels, the court house and convention center have also clustered in the northern parts of the city, so having a way to prevent people from parking indefinitely in a crowded area is necessary to ensure availability.

Parking in Covington is governed largely by the Covington Motor Vehicle Parking Authority, a citizen-governed board that manages meter zones and other parking mechanics north of 12th Street, including public parking garages. The authority is currently in the process of recruiting firms to perform a comprehensive parking study in its jurisdiction.

A five-person mayor-appointed board governs the authority. The board sets policy, and a professional Executive Director, Jack Monts de Oca, manages its operations from a high level. The authority contracts out to ABM to perform collections, monitor meters and perform general day-to-day work. ABM also performs some limited duties south of 12th Street.

“If you pay a meter or you come purchase a long-term parking pass or anything routine like that, it’s probably an ABM staff member that you’re interacting with, as opposed to the parking authority,” Monts de Oca, who formerly worked for ABM, said.

Two other Covington institutions are also involved with parking in Covington, namely the police and public works departments. Public works is in charge of signage, street sweeping and snow removal. The police are responsible for, well, policing violations: If you have a complaint about someone not following the parking regulations, you should talk to them.

“We’re the smallest unit in the police department, but we handle the most calls as far as parking is concerned, traffic-related issues, speeding complaints and accidents throughout the city,” said Covington PD Senior Traffic Specialist Eric Ruete.

Parking meters allow you to pay with coins, a credit card or an app. You get fifteen minutes free without pushing a button; the meters have sensors that should log your car’s presence. The equipment can break, however, which can lead to errors, which, in turn, can lead to unjust citations.

Usually, if you want to appeal, you have to fill out a form, gather evidence and present your case before the city’s Parking Violation Hearing Board. Monts de Oca said that there have been cases where equipment malfunctions and other errors can occur, in which case he can void a citation himself, but this is done on a “case-by-case basis.”

“Especially if they say, I’m willing to come down there and fight this, and you explain it, I’m going to fill [the form] out; if you’re willing to do that, I’m willing to take a few minutes, listen to you and void this over the computer,” Monts de Oca said.

People living in residential areas can petition the city to limit parking in their neighborhoods to people living there. Licking Riverside, for instance, has already done this, and at least one other neighborhood, Mutter Gottes, has tried.

To petition for the establishment of a residential parking zone, someone must determine the boundaries of the zone they’d like to establish, gather signatures and “yes” votes from at least 60% of the property owners in the proposed zone, then submit those materials to the city, along with a letter explaining why the zone would be necessary.

The authority then performs a technical parking study. The zone can only be established if “at least 75% of the curb spaces in the defined area of the [zone] are utilized during peak periods under normal conditions,” according to city ordinance. Mutter Gottes’ study failed to yield the necessary criteria for the establishment of a residential zone.

If the study does yield the necessary results, however, a series of neighborhood meetings and public comment sessions follow to hammer out the details before finally implementing the zone. Even neighborhoods south of 12 Street can apply for a residential parking zone. Consult the city ordinance governing the process to learn more.

Finally, the authority will soon be rolling out a reservation service that will allow residents to make reservations at the Midtown and Rivercenter parking garages using an service called ParkWhiz, either through the service’s website, the authority’s website or ParkWhiz’s app.

“I hope that by deploying publicly available online reservations that guide you straight to the garage at a very competitive price–it’s actually cheaper than the meters–more folks will start utilizing that and start to see that there’s this really nice publicly-available, safe asset that’s only a few blocks from a lot of places they want to be,” Monts de Oca said.

The authority hopes to have the system rolled out by June 10.

You can get more details about paid parking, the role of the Motor Vehicle Parking Authority, the appeals process and other information about parking at covpark.com.

The authority held the first of what they plan to be a series of public community meetings Thursday night. Dates for subsequent meetings will be announced in the near future. You can also attend one of their normal meetings, which occur every third Wednesday of the month at 9 a.m. at Covington City Hall on Pike Street.