$38 is the new $30: Alameda Parking Fines to Rise on March 15

Alameda's City Council voted Tuesday night to raise parking fines on the city's streets. 

City staff surveyed four neighboring cities — San Leandro, Oakland, Berkeley and Hayward — and found that Alameda citations were generally well below those in other communitites. "In almost all categories," reads the city's report, "penalties in Alameda were approximately one half of the survey average."

The rise in rates, says the city's controller, Fred Marsh, will amount to an increase in revenue for the city of about $75,000 per year. Parking ticket rates were last raised in Alameda in November, 2007.

The hike will also, says Marsh, offset the loss of $7.50 per citation that the State of California has been taking to cover the cost of state court system. 

The bill for overstaying your time at a meter will rise from $30 to $38 dollars (same as the jump for violating a street sweeping sign), and the value for most other infractions will got up between $10 and $50 dollars. You'll now pay $75 instead of $50 if you're ticketed for leaving your car on the street for more than 72 hours and $75 instead of $35 for parking in a yellow loading zone.

Read the city's report on the increases, which will go into effect March 15, here. 

Note:  the rates reflected in the report are not the final ones approved.  Council lowered items 1-5 to $38 and raised items 13 and 18-23 to $75.