BATON ROUGE - Paying hundreds of dollars to get a boot off your car for parking violations could soon be a thing of the past for drivers in Baton Rouge.

The Baton Rouge Metro Council introduced an ordinance Wednesday night that looks to not only put a cap on how much booting companies can charge, but also creates signage requirements in private parking lots.

"He essentially called me to say, 'Hey, we had a great time in Baton Rouge. We love the restaurant we went to. We will never come back again because of that experience'," Metro Councilman Rowdy Gaudet said.

Councilman Rowdy Gaudet says he was contacted by out-of-town visitors who visited a restaurant in the downtown area in two separate vehicles. Gaudet says the family realized they overstayed about 20 minutes in the parking spot, and when they returned to their vehicles, both were booted.

"They did not have any sort of indication of who did the booting, what company it was. They had to go back to the restaurant to find out that information. By the time the booting company came back, it was an hour later, he was concerned about his safety, and it was over $450 to have the boot removed," he said.

This led Gaudet and other members of the Metro Council to propose a law that would put a $75 cap on the cost that companies can charge to remove a boot.

"The feedback I was getting was that the cost to remove the boot was no consistency. The rates were high, but there wasn't a set standard rate," Gaudet said.

Gaudet says other communities have very clear and specific signage related to booting in private parking lots.

"Making it very clear that you park here, you overstay, you will get booted, and here is a phone number and here is an amount. So, just clear signage to let them know that booting is there. It's a possibility," he said.

If the ordinance were to pass, each private parking lot would be required to have a sign at each lot entrance.
The signage must include the name and phone number of the booting company.

A public hearing on the ordinance is set for the August 27 Metro Council meeting.