Potential customers of downtown businesses are driving away without spending a dime because they can’t find a place to park, business owners said.

“If customers can’t park in front on the street; they won’t come in,” said Cindy Wickness, owner of Gonterman Jewelers, 143 E. Lincoln Highway.

Public parking is restricted downtown from 15 minutes up to 12 hours, depending on the proximity of the stalls to the central district. Most parking on Lincoln Highway is limited to one hour.

Some downtown business owners have been occupying prime Lincoln Highway spots and receiving tickets, city parking enforcement officer Roger Swedberg said.

The city council increased parking fines from $3 to $10 on Aug. 21 in part to keep business owners and employees out of those spots.

“It is not right,” said Heather Bahnsen, owner of Fleur Furnishings and Boutique, 251 E. Lincoln Highway. “They raised it and no one knew about it.”

Bahnsen said she and her employees park in a 12-hour lot.

Business owners are meeting to develop a plan to squelch the problem and will speak to the city council at its Nov. 10 meeting.

Customer parking difficulty is a problem that contributed to Wickness’ decision to close her jewelry store. The store will close in December.

Low foot traffic and not enough store variety have kept shoppers from the downtown area, Wickness said. “It’s been a problem for 20 years.”

Part of the problem is that tenants living in apartments above the businesses have been parking along the street, Wickness said. The higher penalty seems to have helped, with tenants parking behind the building instead of the front – except on Saturday, Swedberg’s day off, she said.

Swedberg said that before the fine increase he was issuing 25 to 30 tickets a day. Since then, he has been handing out 10 to 15.

The city council voted at its Oct. 27 meeting to draft an ordinance reducing the fine for the first ticket back to $3 and keeping the fines for subsequent tickets at $10.

The council will debate the draft and receive input from business owners at the Nov. 10 meeting.