Rachel IacovoneWPLN News

In the spring, Nashville drivers won’t have to hunt for change to pay for metered parking.

This month, the Metro Council voted to hire Georgia firm LAZ to upgrade, operate and maintain a more high-tech system. Text messaging, credit cards and cash will all be payment options.

It’ll initially start downtown in the commercial district.

“There may be an opportunity to increase the amount of metered parking spaces in other places in the future, but that expansion isn’t imminent,” Nashville Department of Transportation spokesperson Cortnye Stone says. “We’re very focused on upgrading our current infrastructure. Residents in areas with residential parking permit programs can expect increased enforcement, and Nashville residents can expect better enforcement of parking laws more broadly, as well as enhanced technology including credit card payment options.”

The mayor’s office says the current parking system is outdated and operating at only 10% efficiency.

Since at least 2016, the city has known it’s leaving money on the table.

Now that the city has a contract with LAZ, the company will increase staff to monitor the meters.

This will allow the city’s transportation department to focus on enforcing laws already on the books and limiting people from parking in neighborhoods they don’t live in.

Early next year, the city will educate people through signs and other public information, so the stricter enforcement is not a shock.

“It was important to Council that with this new system, and the five-year agreement for its maintenance, the city retain full control of enforcement and all physical space and assets, unlike the previously-proposed 30-year, $34 million asset lease/sale of 2019,” Councilmember Angie Henderson tells WPLN News.

Right now, the cost and hours of metered parking will not change.

But the Nashville Department of Transportation will use data to decide whether to add more meters, extend the hours and increase rates.