Owosso sets 6:30 p.m. Sept. 21 hearing on towing for unpaid tickets
The city posted formal notice Thursday of the public hearing on a new Sec. 33-54 that would let Owosso tow the vehicles of repeat offenders with unpaid parking tickets, and spelled out three ways to comment.
If you have parking tickets sitting unpaid in Owosso, the city is moving toward a rule that would let it tow your vehicle. The City of Owosso posted formal notice Thursday that the City Council will hold a public hearing on that ordinance at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, in the Council Chambers at Owosso City Hall, 301 West Main Street.
The proposed change adds a new Sec. 33-54, Unpaid parking violations, to Chapter 33, Traffic and Motor Vehicles, Article III, Parking, stopping and standing, Division 2, Parking violations bureau. According to the notice, the section would “allow the City to tow the vehicle of repeat offenders with unpaid tickets.”
The Current reported Sept. 9 that council members took a first reading on the towing ordinance at their Sept. 8 meeting and set the hearing for Sept. 21. At that same meeting, the city wrote off roughly $15,000 in uncollected parking tickets. Thursday's posting is the statutory notice that pins down the time and the exact code section, and it names the department behind the proposal: questions go to Public Safety Director Kevin D. Lenkart at 989-725-0580.
The notice lays out three ways to be heard without attending. Written comments can go to the City Clerk's Office at City Hall, 301 West Main Street, Owosso, MI 48867, or by email to [email protected], in either case before the meeting. Verbal comments can be left on the City Council voicemail at 989-725-0596, or made in person at the hearing.
The full text of the amendment can be purchased or inspected at the City Clerk's Office, open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the notice links to the ordinance document online.
What the notice does not say is where the line falls. It does not state how many unpaid tickets, or how much unpaid, makes a driver a “repeat offender,” whether a vehicle owner gets a warning first, or who pays the towing and storage bill to get a car back. Those details sit in the ordinance text itself, and this desk is reviewing it.
What happens next: The hearing opens at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, at City Hall. A public hearing is the step before a council vote on final adoption; the notice does not say whether the council intends to vote the same night.
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