[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town of Wales 3-7-2002. Amendments noted where applicable.]
This Parking Ordinance (hereinafter "the ordinance") is adopted pursuant to 30-A M.R.S.A. § 3009.
This chapter is designed to protect public health and welfare by regulating the parking of motor vehicles on certain public ways. Unrestricted parking on public ways creates traffic hazards and is dangerous to pedestrians and motorists, and it is the purpose of this chapter to reduce this danger.
[Amended 6-13-2026]
For purposes of this chapter, the terms listed below are defined as follows; any other term used in this chapter shall have its common, ordinary meaning unless otherwise indicated.
MOTOR VEHICLE
Is any vehicle defined in 29-A M.R.S.A. § 101.
PUBLIC WAY
Any Town way or public easement as defined in 23 M.R.S.A. § 3021 and any portion in of any state or state-aid highway located within the Town. This term includes ways commonly designated as "streets," "lanes," "roads" and "avenues" and includes paved or unpaved shoulders of such ways.
[Amended 6-13-2026]
When signs are erected giving notice thereof, no person shall park any motor vehicle at any time on the following public ways or specified portions thereof: (Reserved).
This chapter does not apply to motor vehicles that are parked in prohibited areas for the following reasons:
A. 
Mechanical problems or breakdown;
B. 
Emergency situations; or
C. 
Maintenance, construction, repair or installation of utilities or the public way by any state or municipal agency or utility company.
A. 
Any person found in violation of this chapter by a court of competent jurisdiction shall be subject to a fine of not more than $100 nor less than $25; all fines accrue to the municipality.
B. 
Persons charged with violating this chapter may waive court action by payment of a fee of $15 within seven days of receiving notice of the violation. Any such waiver and payment of fee shall be processed through the Town Clerk.
This chapter shall be enforced by the municipal officers or their duly appointed designee. Violation of this chapter shall be a traffic infraction and shall be prosecuted, if necessary, in the appropriate District Court.
In the event that any portion of this chapter is found by a court to be invalid, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.
A. 
The municipal officers must provide at least seven days' notice before they meet to consider and adopt a traffic or parking ordinance; and
B. 
A municipality might also wish to add the following provisions to the above parking ordinance to allow the municipality to tow illegally parked vehicles.
[Amended 6-13-2026]
Any motor vehicle parked upon a public street of the Town in a place, manner or for a length of time prohibited by this chapter, or during any parking ban declared by the Public Works Director/municipal officers/law enforcement (provided notice of such ban has been given at least four hours prior to the ban to the public by notification to a representative of a radio station or television station serving the area), is hereby declared to be an obstruction in the public way and a menace to the safety of the traveling public. Any motor vehicle parked which constitutes an obstruction under this section of this chapter may at the request and under the direction of the Public Works Director/municipal officers/law enforcement be towed to a suitable garage or storage space and impounded therein until all towing and storage fees are paid.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: The original second paragraph of this sections and its two subsections, regarding notice procedures for towed vehicles, which immediately followed, was repealed 6-13-2026.