Birmingham announces proposed changes to its towing ordinance after hundreds of complaints of predatory towing

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Dozens of Birmingham drivers filled Boutwell Arena on June 7 to learn more about the city’s plan to address predatory towing downtown.

Leaders hosted a town hall to hear about the parking problems and what residents thought they should do to fix them. The Birmingham Parking Committee said they started seeing an increase in towing complaints when they switched from kiosks to the mobile payment app. They have heard from many drivers that now the signage doesn’t make sense, the app wont work, or that they actually paid and got towed anyway.

Multiple speakers in the meeting shared similar experiences about being towed within only a few minutes of parking. City leaders said they’ve also gotten multiple complaints of rude treatment from the contracted tow companies and complaints of drug use from the tow drivers. It’s $160 to get your car back and the city said many people report damage to their cars from the towing.

Local business owners worry where their customers can safely park, some even being towed themselves while at work, telling the city they are losing business and revenue from this aggressive towing.

“I’ve been told by multiple people ‘man, we just cant park down there, so we go somewhere else’,” Dave’s Pub owner John Parker said. “It’s kind of a shame. We have a parking issue in Birmingham.”

“My fear is if I open this business, and I have people coming in and pouring money into the city, and they park in a space, they don’t know where to park, is that going to make them subjected to this predatory towing practice,” Business owner LaTasha Simpson said.

The towing ordinance is from 2013 and leaders are looking to update it. Most of the complaints are coming from private lots that hire their own tow companies to enforce the restrictions, and the city can’t stop that, but they can put a cap on how much companies can charge you for non consensual towing. They are looking to make changes to that, because it is currently about $160 to get your back from a tow lot. City leaders also want to expand and have BPD and BDOT over towing regulation, permitting, and have them create a record of complaints and violations. BDOT is also working to redesign signage, making it larger, and more clear.

The city is also recommending a limitation on when a tow can happen, like a 15 min grace period, giving someone time to finish the payment.

“There is one parking lot, forsure, that I can go onto the mobile app, and it will give me a warning,” Julie Bernard with the Birmingham City Attorney’s Office said. “It gives me like three statements, before you leave, make sure your tag number is on your car, make sure you have the right tag number in, if you don’t, you’ll be towed. We want to see that type of warning applied to all mobile payment systems, even maybe improving the warning.”

You still have to be extra careful parking downtown for now. City officials will tweak the proposed ordinance changes, based off of some of the complaints they heard from residents here tonight, then the new guidelines will be presented at city council, before it will go for a vote.

Councilors said there will be another opportunity for public comment on the proposed changes.

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