A parking glossary.
The words that come up when a building manages its own parking, defined plainly. Written for boards and managers rather than for the industry.
Parking permit
Permission for one vehicle to use one space, for a period.
Decal permit
A sticker fixed to a vehicle that shows it holds a permit.
Permit class
The category a permit belongs to — resident, staff, visitor — which decides its rules.
Guest pass
Temporary permission for a visitor’s vehicle, usually requested by a resident.
Assigned parking
A numbered space held by one household, as against first-come parking.
Tandem space
A bay that holds two cars one behind the other.
Stacked parking
Mechanical parking that stores vehicles above one another.
Parking ratio
Spaces per unit, or per thousand square feet of commercial floor area.
Visitor parking ratio
The share of a lot set aside for visitors rather than residents.
LPR (license plate recognition)
Cameras that read plates and check them against a list.
Parking enforcement
Checking that parked vehicles are permitted, and acting when they are not.
Citation
A notice of a parking violation, usually carrying a fee.
Grace period
Time allowed after a violation is observed and before it is acted on.
Patrol round
A walk or drive through a lot, checking the vehicles in it.
Private property tow
Removing a vehicle from private land at the property owner’s request.
Parking waitlist
An ordered queue for a space in a lot that is full.
Proration
Charging for part of a billing period rather than all of it.
Delinquency
Money billed and not collected, and how overdue it is.
Ancillary revenue
Income from services beside the rent — parking, storage, pets.
EV charging space
A bay with a charger, and the rules about who may sit in it.
Accessible parking space
A bay reserved for people with a disability placard or plate.
Parking management software
The system of record for who may park where, and what they are charged.
HOA parking rules
The written rules a community association sets for its parking.
First-come parking
Unassigned parking, used in the order people arrive.
The software behind the vocabulary.
Permits, guest passes, enforcement and billing for residential communities and small commercial lots. One price, per space, per month.