D.C. will forgive thousands of costly parking tickets issued to residents and visitors who parked along snow-emergency routes before the heart of last week’s blizzard set in on the nation’s capital, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser announced Thursday afternoon.
days that D.C. was under a state of emergency because of the storm.
According to administration officials, Bowser (D) will rescind fees for all tickets issued Friday, the day the storm began, in case drivers were not fully aware they would be subject to the $250 fine.
“I understand that some who received citations that Friday may not have known about the parking restriction, or may have been running errands in preparation for the storm,” Bowser said in a statement. “This ticket dismissal is one small way that we can continue to help each other recover from the storm.”
What the D.C. area looks like after the epic blizzard
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The storm has stopped, and the cleanup is only beginning — but not without a snowball fight or some sledding first.
The mayor’s amnesty will cover 2,829 tickets, or more than half of the 5,479 issued during the entire storm. It will also reduce city revenue from ticket-writing during the storm by about $700,000.
Car owners who had their vehicles towed from snow-emergency routes will still be responsible for a $100 towing fee and a $25 impound fee, administration officials said.
The mayor’s attempt at rebuilding some post-storm goodwill could come under scrutiny by the D.C. Council, which has kept the steep fees in place despite perennial complaints, citing the need to make sure that residents take snow emergencies seriously and that roads can be cleared for emergency responders.
The dismissal of half of the tickets could also seem arbitrary to residents who received tickets over the four ensuing days of the storm. After the snow began, hundreds of drivers were forced to abandon vehicles after they became stuck in snow on the streets the city said were its priority to keep clear.
The move by the mayor’s office also will compound the city’s costs from the storm. D.C. budgeted about $6 million for snow removal for the entire winter but had spent more than $12 million by Tuesday, and that figure was expected to rise further as costs to bring in contractors become clear in coming days. A large share of those costs could be recovered through federal emergency funds. The District is expected to file an application with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster funding for the storm.
Under city rules, the District must give residents and visitors at least an hour’s notice before beginning to issue tickets for parking along snow-emergency routes. Last week, the District gave about 23 hours’ notice.
