Moorpark : Violators of Parking Code Get Brief Reprieve

The city of Moorpark has waived fines for more than 100 residents who received traffic tickets for violating a new code prohibiting street parking on street-sweeper days, authorities said.

But the grace period will end March 14, when Moorpark Police Department officers will begin citing vehicles left on public streets on posted days, Moorpark Patrol Sgt. Keith Parks said.

“Residents need to check the signs at the entrance streets to their neighborhood to see which day and time period applies to their street,” Parks said.

The new parking rules, approved in November by the Moorpark City Council, are intended to help the city comply with federal clean water regulations, said Ken Gilbert, the city’s public works director.

“One of the ways to clean up pollution is to have more efficient street sweeping to prevent dirt from entering the storm drains,” Gilbert said. “But before the new parking ordinance, there were areas of the city where the street sweepers more or less drove down the center of the road because of all the parked cars.”

After an initial 60-day moratorium on citations and towing expired in mid-February, police began issuing citations to residents who ignored the posted warnings.

Police issued 107 tickets, 48 in the downtown area and the rest in the Peach Hill area, Parks said. “The signs had been up for a month, but it still caught some people by surprise,” he said.