Vehicles with five or more unpaid parking tickets in the Wheaton may now be towed under a new ordinance approved by the Wheaton City Council.

The ordinance addresses chronic parking violators whose repeated offenses have made it harder to navigate residential streets and find parking in downtown Wheaton, according to a news release.

Key aspects of the ordinance:

• This ordinance only applies to unpaid parking tickets. 
• Tickets are issued to a vehicle using its license plate. A vehicle is eligible to be towed once it has accrued five unpaid parking tickets. 
• Once a vehicle is eligible to be towed, it will be stickered and a notice will be sent to the registered owner.
• The vehicle owner has seven days to pay all outstanding fines, or the vehicle may be towed at the owner’s expense without further notice.

The city encourages drivers to check whether they have outstanding parking tickets. You can look up unpaid parking tickets by entering a license plate into both of the city’s parking systems. One is for downtown parking while the other covers the rest of the city.

• Parking Citation link (tickets issued in the downtown)
• Violation link (tickets issued outside of the downtown or city lots)

For more information about this ordinance, including frequently asked questions, see the city’s website.