St. Petersburg parking fines nearly double following city council vote

St. Petersburg City Council members voted to increase parking penalties across the board after finding drivers intentionally risked fines rather than paying standard rates.Parking fines nearly doubleCity council leaders approved raising the fine for overstaying paid parking time from $17.50 to $32.50. Council member Richie Floyd said he saw some drivers deliberately chose to take a fine to save money rather than pay for long parking periods.The council also raised penalties by $15 for parking near fire hydrants and in no-parking zones. Officials updated residential parking permits as part of the overall changes.Visitors weigh parking costsVisitors from around the Tampa Bay region said paying for parking in downtown St. Petersburg remains easy and fairly priced."I think it's about five dollars for two hours though so you kind of have a time limit which stinks you're kind of in a rush to do what you want to do and everything's sort of spread out but I mean it's pretty reasonable I think,