As the holidays approach, Annapolis City Council members are trying to give local merchants and shoppers a gift of lower parking meter fees.
Yesterday, Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins joined the crowd, saying he wants to reduce all downtown meter fees to 50 cents an hour from the current $1.
The lower rates would be effective as early as tomorrow and would expire Jan. 1.
Mr. Hopkins has introduced a measure to make all downtown parking free during Christmas week, but the council has not voted on that proposal.
The meter reductions are popular among local business owners, who say they are losing customers to nearby malls and other shopping areas where parking is free.
Only one of several proposals and suggestions has been adopted by the council. That was a bill proposed last month by Ward 7 Alderman M. Theresa DeGraff to halve all meter rates on Maryland Avenue through Jan. 31.
Four council members -- Louise Hammond, Shep Tullier, Wayne C. Turner and Ms. DeGraff -- are trying to get the city's parking advisory committee to re-examine the rates as a whole to determine how seriously they are hurting local businesses.
During that study, the aldermen argue, the city should reduce all downtown meter fees by half for even longer than the mayor proposes -- from December through March.
A bill they proposed at Tuesday night's City Council meeting will be taken up this morning during a Finance Committee meeting (( at City Hall.