Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — Municipal authorities in Playa del Carmen have shut down the parking lot pay machines at central Walmart. On Thursday, city officials visited the centrally located store to verify permits were in order.
Since the company did not have permits to place the meters or charge for parking, city Territorial Planning closed them. Large clausurardo (closed down) seals were placed over the arm area of the pay machines.
Earlier this week, Territorial Planning Secretariat, Rocío Beltrán Sánchez, clarified that the 30th Avenue location did not have city permission to install the meters or a permit to charge for parking. He also clarified that there was no request to do so from the company.
“Let’s remember that parking is a right that people who go to a plaza have. The law does not really establish that you should be charged. It is one thing if they come to ask us for permission to profit from the parking spaces, but another very different thing is if we would authorize it. We would have to analyze it very well,” he said.
On Wednesday, Mayor Lili Campos defended the company saying “The control arms that shops or plazas often put up are sometimes done for security or control reasons, but that does not mean that they are charging.”
She also said that in the event Walmart wanted to charge for parking, the Solidaridad Territorial Planning would take the pertinent actions to penalize them in accordance with the law.
