The city of Platteville has issued a two-hour parking limit on Main Street. This new law has not only affected business owners but also their potential customers and current clients. Customers may spend more than two hours in a business; however, they may end up being penalized with a parking ticket.
“It’s not leaving a good taste in your month and isn’t the best experience when a customer has to pay for a ticket,” Marjorie Spensley, A&M Bridal Boutique owner said.
In some cases, clients will need to spend more than two hours in a business due to circumstances beyond their control. For instance, a client getting a tattoo cannot go and move their car with their tattoo exposed because of the risk of infection, which then in turn, leads to a parking ticket. Business owners as well cannot just leave in the middle of an appointment with a client to move their car.
“When our customers are getting a tattoo the last thing they are thinking about is moving their cars,” Faye Engler, Bad Cat Tattoo owner said.
Not only are customers paying for parking tickets, but the businesses are also paying out of pocket for their customer’s tickets.
“I’ll pay one [a ticket] or I just deduct it from their overall cost of the appointment,” Teri Sprink, Co-owner of MVP Sports Cuts said.
This cuts into the profit these businesses could be making, but they do not want to lose their customers.
The parking problem seems not only to be affecting businesses and their clients, but also Main Street itself.
“They want downtown to grow and how is downtown going to grow if you are limiting the time people can go to businesses,” Amy Gard, Co-owner of MVP Sports Cuts said.
Raising the parking limit to a three-four hour parking limit could be sufficient enough for clients and customers to have enough time to get their hair done or spend time trying on dresses and not having to worry about getting a ticket.
“Even if they give us a pass to put on the dash of a car to let them know they are getting their hair done [it would help],” Sprink said.
Main Street stores hope to see something done in the near future to help keep their customers happy and businesses growing.