Timed parking is going to expand to several additional streets in Danville’s River District, after a revamped effort to enforce parking time limits began in June.
Starting around the end of April, Craghead Street, Bridge Street and parts of Wilson, Newton and Colquhoun streets will have two-hour time limits. These streets currently have no parking time limit.
This expansion is brought on by high parking occupancy in this part of the River District, which connects to Main Street and runs southeast, said Nick Piccolo, operations manager for Pivot Parking.
Pivot is a South Carolina-based company that the city partnered with when it reintroduced ticketing last year.
More important than writing tickets, Piccolo said, is Pivot’s software that gathers occupancy data. A license plate detector, mounted on top of a car marked with the company’s logo, collects information on how long any given car has been in one place and how many cars are parked on specific blocks.
The data collected since June shows that more than 90% of on-street parking spots are occupied on a daily basis on Craghead, Bridge, Wilson, Newton and Colquhoun streets, Piccolo said during a meeting hosted by the River District Association in February.
“Our data shows that people are usually parking for more than an hour or two, sometimes for an entire day,” he said. “A lot of times they’re parking for multiple days at once in the same spot. … There needs to be timed parking added to those areas to promote space turnover.”
How to avoid a parking ticket in Danville’s River District
- Park in a parking space — not a loading zone, fire lane or handicap space (unless you have a handicap placard).
- Don’t back into an angled parking spot. This is considered parking on the wrong side of the road and will result in a ticket.
- Adhere to time limits. There is a two-hour time limit on Main Street and several side streets. Time limits are coming to Bridge and Craghead streets and parts of Colquhoun, Newton and Wilson streets in April.
- If you move your car to another spot after two hours, make sure you move it to a different block or you’ll risk a ticket.
- Pay tickets within 30 days to avoid additional fines. A $10 late fee is added if a ticket is not paid within 30 days. Another $10 is added if a ticket is not paid within 60 days. After 90 days, the fine becomes three times the original fee, plus the $20 in late charges.
Danville’s growth prompted the reinvigorated parking enforcement effort last year. Before June, it had been at least two years since the city had a full-time parking enforcement officer.
During that time, signs announcing the time limit for parking on a certain street didn’t mean much. The limits weren’t enforced, and cars sat all day in parking spaces designated for one-hour or two-hour use.
This impacted foot traffic for downtown businesses, created a headache for residents and visitors and wasn’t conducive to the city’s continuing growth, said Danville Police Chief Chris Wiles in a 2025 interview.
The enforcement began on Main Street and several of its side streets with a one-hour parking time limit. This was increased to two hours after feedback from business owners who said that one hour didn’t allow patrons to both eat and shop without moving their car.
Compliance is increasing, and ticketing is decreasing as visitors and residents in the River District get used to enforcement, Piccolo said.
“Once people understand the rules, there are very few repeat offenders,” he said.
Pivot is still waiting on a confirmed schedule for the installation of new signs depicting time limits, though it’ll likely be around late April, said Brandon Lauterbach, co-founder of Pivot Parking.
A few weeks before enforcement starts, Pivot will begin putting out flyers about parking enforcement starting on several additional streets. During the first week of enforcement, Pivot will issue warnings for parking violations, Piccolo said. Ticketing will begin after that.
Most tickets are $25, though parking in fire lanes, loading zones or handicap spots carries higher fees, up to $250.
What this means for businesses, residents and visitors
Pivot makes recommendations to the city about if and where parking time limits should expand, based on data it collects.
“If you see the guy riding around in the patrol car, he’s not primarily giving tickets,” Piccolo said. “Mostly, he’s riding around with the license plate reader on top of the car gathering occupancy data. … That tells us how many cars are on the street at 9 a.m., at noon, at 2 p.m., at different times of the day.”
Data gathered by Pivot’s LPRs will not be used for surveillance or policing purposes, said Wiles.
Pivot uses that data “to make recommendations to the city that aren’t just opinons-based,” Piccolo said, although the company also gathers feedback from business owners.
“If the occupancy is super high in one area, we know there’s a problem there,” Piccolo said.
That’s what happened with Craghead, Bridge, Newton, Wilson and Colquhoun streets, he said. So Pivot recommended an expansion of timed parking in these areas, and the city approved it.
This will be an adjustment for business owners, employees, patrons and residents on these streets.
Wendy Brim, owner of Links Coffee House, said most of her customers stay at her Craghead Street business for two to four hours. And her employees work shifts that are usually seven or eight hours.
“What should I tell my employees?” she asked Piccolo at the RDA meeting.
There is street parking along Craghead, and angled parking spots on Wilson Street near Links.
Behind Links is a parking deck called Acree’s Garage that has no time limit and about 135 spaces. Employees and patrons can park there for as long as needed without enforcement.
But the garage and the angled spaces are often occupied, Brim said. She said she thinks this is because students at Danville’s Accelerated Training and Defense Manufacturing program, a workforce pipeline program for the U.S. Navy, typically live in the River District and take a bus to and from their classes, leaving their cars downtown.
“It’s a great program, they provide us service, but they park in those parking spaces and they’re there days at a time,” Brim said at the meeting. “The garage is often full.”
Piccolo advised Brim to tell her employees and customers that they can also park at Newton’s Landing, a large surface lot parallel to Bridge Street along the river, about a block from Links. There are no time limits for parking in one of the 350 spaces at Newton’s Landing.
This is also where River District residents should park during the day if they do not have designated parking spots for their apartment building, Piccolo said.
“I’ve been told that every apartment downtown has been provided with one parking space per apartment,” he said. “If you have a second car, or you have a roommate with a car, you’ll need to park at Newton’s Landing during the day.”
Pivot doesn’t enforce time limits overnight, so residents can park anywhere they want after 5 p.m. and before 9 a.m.
“If Acree’s Garage becomes an issue where there’s never any parking available, then I can take that feedback to the city and we can figure out a solution,” Piccolo said. “My biggest priority is taking care of the business owners, the people who live down there, and the people who want to visit downtown.”
Piccolo said he sometimes hears complaints about the inconvenience of having to walk from Newton’s Landing or Acree’s Garage to elsewhere in the River District.
“The big argument is, ‘I’ve never had to walk before,’” he said. “But we’re not asking anyone to walk a mile. Most of the apartments are within a block or two.”
Adam Jones, owner of the Brick Running & Tri Store on Main Street, where timed parking has been enforced for about nine months, said it’s been a positive change.
“I’ve found that there are less customers complaining about not being able to find parking,” Jones said. “People are moving in and out. I don’t get complaints anymore about people circling, circling, circling.”
Compliance is increasing
About nine months into the renewed ticketing effort, compliance is continually increasing, Piccolo said.
Educating River District-goers on the rules is one of his favorite parts of the job, he said. As people learn more about the ticketing regulations, there are fewer tickets handed out.
“Usually when I’m able to explain something, especially to someone who’s upset about a ticket, once I’m able to explain the rules, there are very few repeat offenders,” Piccolo said. “The big thing for me is getting the knowledge and education out there.”
That’s the “whole point of the program,” he said. There are no ticketing quotas, and enforcement isn’t revenue-motivated.
“What we’re doing is enforcing compliance. Once there’s compliance, there’s almost no tickets,” he said.
As long as people pay their parking tickets, there is no escalation in penalties, even for repeat offenders.
“You’re not going to get any repercussions just because you’ve gotten 20 tickets, as long as you’ve paid those 20 tickets,” Piccolo said.
Fines will increase if tickets aren’t paid on time. Pivot allows 30 days to pay a parking ticket, with a $10 late fee after 30 days, followed by another $10 after 60 days. If a ticket is not paid after 90 days, the fee goes up to triple the original ticket amount plus the existing $20 in late fees.