Miami Beach votes to end some disabled parking permit privileges to curb ‘abuse’
Miami Beach commissioners voted Wednesday to limit some special parking privileges for people with disabilities in response to the “rampant misuse” of disabled placards and a shortage of resident parking spaces.
The legislation, which received tentative approval, would end the city’s current policy of allowing anyone with a disabled permit to park for free and without time restrictions in resident-only parking zones.
Current permit holders would still be allowed to park for free in public, metered spots or in garages, and in designated disabled parking spots. Similarly, residents with disabled parking permits would still be able to apply for residential permits without charge if their address corresponds to one of the 20 residential zones in the city.
But they would not be able to park in a zone other than their own.
Commissioners unanimously voted in favor of the ordinance Wednesday, but a final vote is needed to formally adopt it.
The proposal comes as the city says people without disabilities are taking advantage of the current exemptions and parking in zones restricted for residents of a particular neighborhood. It’s especially a problem in the South of Fifth neighborhood, the city says, where residents have taken videos that appear to show hospitality workers using disabled parking placards to park in resident-only spots.
Parking Director Monica Beltran said many valet drivers and restaurant workers with no apparent physical issues have been seen with disabled placards. She said some people may get their placards from relatives or convince a doctor to recommend one for them, despite not having any disability.
The Miami Beach Police Department, she said, is investigating whether the placards were fraudulently issued in the first place.
“Typically one would say that if you have a valet runner running across the street to bring a car back, they shouldn’t have a disabled placard,” Beltran said at a January meeting of the city’s Disability Access Committee.
Beltran said the legislation would free up resident-only parking spots and hopefully reduce placard abuse.
“The bottom line is that there is an incredible proliferation of these placards everywhere in the city,” she said at the January meeting. “You can drive down any street where there is a restriction and you will see one car after the other with a disabled placard. So it has come time to handle the residential zone as what they are: parking for residents of that zone.”
Last November, Miami Beach Police and Parking Department staff confiscated 14 parking permits and issued nine criminal citations while conducting disabled-permit checks in the South of Fifth neighborhood.
South of Fifth resident-activist David Suarez, who has pushed for months to crack down on the abuse of placards, called the proposed ordinance a “great step” toward curbing the practice at the January meeting.
“This isn’t just for the residents, this is for truly disabled people who need access to parking,” he said at the time.
The ordinance, sponsored by commissioners Mark Samuelian and Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, has the support of the Disability Access Committee and the Transportation, Parking and Bicycle-Pedestrian Facilities Committee, according to the city.
“This is a community-driven solution,” Samuelian said in an interview. “It was residents who highlighted and documented this issue. It was our Disability Access Committee that took this issue on and issued a statement in support.”
Beltran said the city’s current exemption is far more lenient than what is required in Florida law or in practice in neighboring municipalities. State law requires that public, metered parking be free for at least four hours, but Beltran said Miami Beach makes metered spaces free indefinitely for those with disabled permits.
“Although the underlying policy rationale for the city’s current policy reflects the City Commission’s strong values and leadership on accessibility issues for the benefit of the disabled community, regrettably, the fraudulent and illegal acquisition and use of disabled person license plates and parking permits has become a statewide (and national) problem,” City Attorney Rafael Paz wrote in a memo accompanying the proposed ordinance.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 4:15 PM.
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