Denton's parking system has no single owner, no dedicated fund and only two public safety officers assigned to enforcement, according to a citywide assessment the City Council is scheduled to formally accept on Tuesday, Nov. 17.
The 183-page study by Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates, hired by the council in April 2024, lays out a long list of possible changes: a parking division inside Transportation Services, residential permit zones near the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University, and eventually paid parking districts downtown and around both campuses.
The resolution on Tuesday's consent agenda is a formality. A staff memo says the report was finished in August 2025 and shown to the council at a Sept. 15 work session, and the vote documents that earlier acceptance.
Each recommendation would still need its own staff review and council action before anything changes on the street, and the consultants themselves describe the plan as strategic rather than final.
What the consultants found
- Parking duties are scattered among several departments, which the report says leads to uneven enforcement, operations and planning.
- Enforcement is described as reactive and short on people and technology, with no tracking data to guide decisions.
- Residents filed 935 parking-related complaints in 2023. Abandoned vehicles and students parking in neighborhoods near the campuses came up repeatedly.
- Phone location data showed most trips to the busiest areas cover less than five miles, and the typical parked car stays under two hours.
What they recommend
In the first two years, the report suggests hiring a parking manager and two technicians, moving enforcement from the Police Department to Transportation Services, buying license plate recognition and parking app technology, starting residential permit programs near UNT and TWU, rewriting loading zone rules and creating a parking fund that would collect all parking revenue.
