One of the situations resolved by "fee parking" in Bet Shemesh has been the situation with the car rental companies. The car rental companies used to take up many spots in the parking lot of the shopping center of RBS A - and since paid parking went into effect, they have had to find alternate parking for their fleets so as not to incur high parking expenses.
According to Shemeshnet, the car rental companies have moved their cars, and now park all along the Nahal Tzeelim street, just outside the Merkaz Mischari, leaving no spots available for residential parking. Residents are upset that the rental companies are taking all their spots, leaving them nowhere to park, and no parkign tags are being distributed for residential parking as is done in many other places..
While the residents on the edge of Ramat Shilo, a bit further down, have a good complaint if the rental agencies are parking that far down, the residents at the higher end of the street really do not.
At the higher end of Tzeelim, the buildings are a part of the shopping center. All those residential buildings have underground parking lots, with parking for the residents. Shoppers are not allowed to park down in those lots.
The problem with those lots is that many of the residents have rented out there spots to stores that have opened up. The parking lots have basically been converted into underground malls. That means the residents are collecting rent off those parking spots, but don't have anywhere to park for free - not in the parking lot of the shopping cventer, and now not on the outer street because of the rnetal car fleets. I don't feel bad for them though, because they chose to rent out their parking spots, instead of using them for parking.
I do not see why they should have free parking spots, be able to rent them out for money, and then be able to demand more free parking.
While they say City Hall is not making residential parking tags available, the City did advertise in its media blitz that residents who do not own parking spots in the underground lots will be able to apply for residential tags allowing them to park for free. I would believe the residents if they said that despite the advertising, no such tags are available. If, however, the tags are not available because they own private spots that are now rented out to stores, I am less sympathetic.
Residents should be able to park their cars within reasonable proximity to their houses. They should not be able to complain if they gave up their spots for profit.
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