[Adopted 9-12-1989 by Ord. No. 197]
The words and phrases used in this article which are defined in the Maryland Code (1977) Transportation Article, as amended, shall, for the purposes of this article have the same meanings as set forth in the Maryland Code (1977), Transportation Article, as it may be amended from time to time.
A. 
The Commissioners of St. Michaels ("the Commissioners") shall have the power, by written resolution, to regulate parking on public streets and municipal property in the Town by:
(1) 
Designation of the streets, and the portions thereof, for installation of parking meters.
(2) 
Establishment of the hours and schedule of fees for parking meter uses.
(3) 
Designation of parking spaces for the handicapped.
(4) 
Designation of fire lanes.
(5) 
Designation of no-parking zones.
(6) 
Establishment of the fines for a violation of this article and for a violation of any Town ordinance regulating the stopping, standing and/or parking of vehicles.
(7) 
Establishment of administrative charges for failure to timely pay the fines established pursuant to this article.
B. 
The passage of such resolution shall require the affirmative vote of at least three members of The Commissioners of St. Michaels after being read and considered at a single public meeting of The Commissioners of St. Michaels. Before becoming effective, the resolution must be posted on the Town bulletin board for a period of not less than seven consecutive days; notice of passage thereof shall be published at least once in a newspaper of general circulation in the Town.
C. 
The regulations adopted pursuant to Subsection A shall be effective upon the erection of signs and/or parking meters authorized by the Commissioners in sufficient number to apprise ordinarily observant persons of the existence of the regulation upon the affected public street or municipal parking lot.
The portions of public streets and municipal parking lots of the Town included within parking meter zones, as established pursuant to § 312-8 hereof, shall be divided into metered parking spaces of such size as will reasonably accommodate the parking of vehicles therein, and each metered parking space shall be adequately marked by means of painted lines or otherwise, so as to reasonably notify the public of the boundaries of the metered parking spaces. It shall be unlawful to park any vehicle in such a way that said vehicle shall not be entirely within the limits of the parking space so designated.
Except in a period of emergency so determined by a Town police officer, when any vehicle shall be parked in any metered parking space in the Town, the operator of such vehicle shall, upon causing such vehicle to be placed in said metered parking space, immediately deposit or cause to be deposited in the parking meter governing said metered parking space such proper coin or coins of United States money as is required for such parking meter, as prescribed by regulation passed according to § 312-8 hereof, and as is designated by directions on the governing parking meter; and when required by the directions on the parking meter, the operator of such vehicle, after the deposit of the proper coin or coins, shall also set in operation the timing mechanism on such meter. The failure to deposit such proper coin or coins in the governing parking meter, and to set the timing mechanism in operation when so required, shall constitute a violation of this article. Upon the deposit of such coin or coins into the governing parking meter, and the setting of the timing mechanism thereof in operation, the parking space may be lawfully occupied by such vehicle during the period of time which has been prescribed for the part of the public street or municipal parking lot in which said parking space is located, provided that any person placing a vehicle in a metered parking space adjacent to a meter which indicates that unused time has been left on the meter by the previous occupant of the space shall not be required to deposit a coin so long as his or her occupancy of said space does not exceed the indicated unused parking time on said meter. If said vehicle shall remain parked in any such metered parking space beyond the parking time limit set for such parking space, as indicated on the parking meter governing the use of such parking space, and if the meter shall indicate such illegal parking, then, and in that event, such vehicle shall be considered as parking overtime and beyond the period of legal parking time, and such parking shall be deemed in violation of this article.
A. 
It shall be unlawful, and a violation of the provisions of this article, for any person:
(1) 
To cause, allow, permit or suffer any vehicle registered in the name of, or operated by, such person to be parked overtime, beyond the period of legal parking time established for any metered parking space as herein described, or to deposit in any parking meter any coin for the purpose of parking beyond the maximum legal parking time for the particular metered parking space.
(2) 
To cause, allow, permit or suffer any vehicle registered in the name of, or operated by, such person to remain or be placed in any metered parking space adjacent to any parking meter while said meter is displaying a signal indicating that the vehicle occupying such metered parking space has already been parked beyond the period prescribed for such parking space.
(3) 
To cause, allow, permit or suffer any vehicle registered in the name of, or operated by, such person to be parked across any line or marking of a metered parking space or in such position that the vehicle shall not be entirely within the area designated by such lines or markings designating the metered parking space.
(4) 
To deface, injure, tamper with, break, destroy or impair the usefulness of any parking meter installed under the provisions of this article, or to open any parking meter without prior authority to do so from the Town.
(5) 
To cause, allow, permit or suffer any vehicle registered in the name of, or operated by, such person, when such vehicle which does not bear handicapped registration and license tags, to stop, stand or park in a space designated or reserved by sign for handicapped parking in the Town pursuant to § 312-8 of this article.
(6) 
To cause, allow, permit or suffer any vehicle registered in the name of, or operated by, such person, other than a police, fire or ambulance vehicle, to be parked in a designated fire lane designated by § 312-8 of this article.
(7) 
To cause, allow, permit of suffer any vehicle registered in the name of, or operated by, such person to be parked in a designated crosswalk, designated intersection, no parking zone, or sidewalk.
B. 
Each violation of a separate section or subsection of this article, and each separate violation of a separate section or subsection of Article I of this chapter, shall constitute separate violations. Each day a violation of any provision of this article or of Article I of this chapter shall continue or recur shall constitute a separate offense. Any person charged with a violation of this article or of Article I of this chapter may waive trial and prepay the fine as set forth under the schedule of prepaid fines as established by § 312-8 of this article by The Commissioners of St. Michaels by resolution, as amended from time to time.
In all cases of parking violations, a sworn officer of the St. Michaels Police Department, or other parking enforcement personnel authorized by the Commissioners, who discovers a vehicle parked in violation of this article shall deliver to the registered owner or operator of the vehicle in violation, or if the vehicle be unattended, attach to said vehicle in a conspicuous place a citation for a municipal infraction. In the absence of the operator, the registered owner of the vehicle shall be presumed to be the person receiving the citation. A copy of the citation shall be retained by the officer and shall bear his or her certification, under penalty of perjury, attesting to the truth of the matter therein set forth. The recipient of a citation issued pursuant to this article may make payment for the violation directly to the office of the Town Clerk/Manager, or, if said recipient desires to stand trial for said offense, may elect to do so pursuant to Chapter 33, Municipal Infractions, of the Code of the Town of St. Michaels, as amended from time to time. In the event that the recipient of said citation elects to stand trial, all of the provisions and procedures of Chapter 33, Municipal Infractions, as amended from time to time, shall be applicable.
Persons failing to pay the fine designated for the violation of this article by the date of payment set out in the citation, and failing to timely file a notice of intention to stand trial for such offense, shall have directed to them by mail, at the last address indicated in the records of the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, a notice of delinquent payment which shall provide, in addition to the initial charges, an administrative penalty established by written regulation, pursuant to the procedures established in § 312-8 of this article, for each 30 days, or part thereof, during which the fine for each delinquent violation goes unpaid.
The continued failure to make payment of the fine to the Town, as provided in this article, by the person receiving a parking citation or the owner of the vehicle to which a citation is attached, in accordance with the provisions of this article, shall cause the St. Michaels Police Department to notify the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration to refuse to issue, renew, or transfer the registration of any vehicle for which a citation has been issued pursuant to this article, and which citation has not been paid, until such time as the fine, and any administrative penalties assessed pursuant to this article, have been fully paid to the Town. At such time as a violation is placed on computer card, tape or other device required by the flagging procedure to the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, a final administrative charge, as shall be set from time to time by regulation pursuant to § 312-8 of this article, shall be assessed and applied. These procedures shall be in addition to, and not in lieu of, other penalties provided by law for persons failing to pay the fine for parking violations or to stand trial for such offenses.