If you were thinking about parking at the South College Center to enjoy your time in Lafayette's Moncus Park, you may want to think again.

Starting Saturday, anyone parking in the South College Center to go to Moncus Park will be towed. According to Stephen, part owner and manager of the shopping center, they have tried every avenue to deal with the parking issues since the opening of Moncus Park to no avail.

According to a report from our media partners at KATC, Landry said towing the vehicles of those using the center's parking lot to visit Moncus Park is the final resort.

A photo on the South College Center's Facebook page showed the new signs that can be seen around the lot warning people of the new towing policy.

The KATC report detailed some of the issues that the businesses in the shopping center are facing due to parking being taken up by those headed to the park, making it difficult for their customers to find parking—in some cases leaving no open spaces for their patrons on busy days like Saturday's Farmer's Market.

According to the center, they actually support Moncus Park but are saying that support can't come at the mercy of the parking spots that tenants pay good money for within their lease agreements.

Naturally, there were mixed reactions to the recent announcement as parking has been a major issue for Moncus Park ever since it opened to the public.

Whether it's folks who are parking in other private lots to access the park or folks who simply don't want to pay the small parking fee to park at Moncus Park, it's a work in progress for park directors who say additional parking is in the works.

As a matter of fact, Moncus announced that parking will be free this weekend on their official Facebook page.

 

It didn't stop people from sparring in the comments once the new South College Center policy was announced on Friday (Mar. 3).

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While some people feel like the shopping center is overreacting, others pointed out that those who pay for their customers to have available parking shouldn't have to sacrifice the convenience of their potential patrons.

Others questioned how the towing policy would be enforced properly suggesting that this was a situation ripe for someone having their vehicle towed accidentally. Some suggested using camera surveillance to enforce the new parking policy.

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As the finger-pointing continued, there was also the argument that a lot of the customers who park in the shopping center also go to Moncus Park, and vice-versa.

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Someone even suggested buying a drink from one of the shopping centers as somewhat of a "hack" to get around the towing policy, but someone pointed out that if he was only buying the drink as a means of getting to park in the lot, he may as well just pay for parking at the park for nearly the same price.

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Based on what I'm hearing from both sides of this issue, everyone is trying to look out for their best interests and, hopefully, additional parking at Moncus will help to alleviate some of these issues.

This shouldn't be a "one thing or the other" issue and something tells me these two groups will ultimately come to a solution that works out for everyone.

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