RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — A day at the beach on Singer Island ended with a parking ticket for Kerry Lutz, and now he is taking his fight over parking enforcement to federal court against several South Florida cities and major parking app companies.
Lutz said he returned to his car after parking in his usual spot and found a ticket on his windshield. “It was just a shock to me, I kept thinking I must be wrong here,” he said.
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Looking for a pay-to-park sign, Lutz said he found signage he believes is easy to miss and confusing.
“I see a sign there, but it’s got a QR code on it. That’s not in the code. It’s got a beachball, a beach umbrella, sand, and a wave. Which I realize the wave was for the wave of tsunami of tickets they were writing because nobody sees these signs,” Lutz said.
Lutz has filed a federal complaint against the Town of Palm Beach; the cities of West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Riviera Beach, Delray Beach, and Fort Lauderdale; and parking technology companies ParkMobile, PayByPhone, and One Parking.
The lawsuit claims the cities have pushed parking into app-only systems, leaving drivers with no real choice but to use private apps to pay for parking.
Lutz’s complaint makes two main arguments. First, he contends that signage in many places does not meet standards in the federal government’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.
The law states that signs for parking must be on a white background with either red or green font.
“Red means no, green means yes,” Lutz said.
Lutz said the signs he photographed and included in his lawsuit do not warn about citations and instead only instruct drivers to pay to park.
He also argues the signs can be hard to understand and sometimes contain mixed messaging.
“The Florida law specifically says unless a valid traffic control device is posted properly and is legible, no enforcement can be done,” Lutz said.
Second, Lutz argues drivers are being forced into private contracts in order to park, raising privacy concerns.
“You’re consenting to data sharing, effectively waving your privacy rights,” he said.
Lutz said his lawsuit is about more than a single ticket and that he plans to continue pressing the issue.
“I think when the court sees this, it’s going to be an eye opener,” he said.
The City of Boca Raton and the app PayByPhone said they cannot comment on pending litigation.
