The City of Lakeland, working in consultation with the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority (LDDA), will be replacing older parking pay station kiosks with newer technology that offers users a number of features and conveniences. The new pay stations will be installed on September 9th with one located at the Munn Park Parking lot, one at Lot D located beside Mitchell’s Coffee Shop and two in the lower level of the Main Street Parking Garage.
PAY-BY-PLATE
One of the new conveniences for users is the pay-by-plate feature. Pay-by-plate is a paperless method for parking payments that works by using the license plate number on the vehicle instead of displaying a paper receipt or ticket to confirm that parking fees have been paid. By using a machine near the parking lot, drivers can pay by entering their license plate number and designate the amount of time needed for a parking space. The cost for parking remains the same at $1.00 per hour and patrons may park all-day at these four locations.
Angelo Rao, Manager of Traffic Operations & Parking said, “The City invested in four new parking pay stations to replace existing machines. These new machines have several payment options including credit card, the ParkMobile app and dollar bills.” He added, “These new machines have the latest technology making them much more user friendly with bright, easy to read screens.” All City of Lakeland on-street pay parking and the new pay-by-plate pay stations use ParkMobile, a free app makes it easy to find and pay for parking without running back to feed the meter. Park Mobile is located in over 3,000 locations across North America. The app is available for both Apple and Android mobile operating systems.
ON STREET PARKING
Visitors parking in the core of downtown have a 2-hour maximum for FREE parking per day. Visitors requiring additional time in the downtown core are encouraged to use the ParkMobile app. This area is marked Zone 2705 on the app and is $1.00/hour for a maximum of TWO (2) additional hours (maximum of four hours on-street). The locations of Zone 2705 parking are symbolized by the “black dots” on the linked map (http://bit.ly/lakelandparking).
For those that require more than four-hours of downtown parking, on-street peripheral locations on Massachusetts Avenue, Main Street and Orange Street are now in place. Customers can use the ParkMobile app to park in these locations. The exact areas are depicted by green dots on the linked map (http://bit.ly/lakelandparking). This peripheral parking through ParkMobile is Zone 2725. The first two hours of operation are free with the ability to purchase up to seven additional continuous hours (for a grand total of up to nine hours) at the rate of $0.25 per hour plus applicable ParkMobile fees.