Parking Citations

Citation payments must be received on or before the due date to avoid an additional $35.00 penalty fee. Citations can be paid in the following manner:

  1. Credit card payments can be made online at: paymycite.com/ucsc. Payments are also accepted by phone between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday, by calling (888) 300-9966. There is a $3.95 per citation processing fee for credit card payments, both by phone and online.
  2. By mail to UCSC Parking Citations, c/o Parking Citations Service Center, P.O. Box 11923, Santa Ana, CA 92711-1923. When making a payment by mail, please make your check or money order out to UCSC Parking Citations and include the citation and vehicle license plate number on the check.
  3. In person at the TAPS Sales Office between 7:30 am and 4:30 pm.

Failure to resolve outstanding citations could impact your ability to renew your UCSC parking permit.

Effective December 1, 2022.
**Vehicles with five or more parking citations over 21 days old are subject to being immobilized with a "boot." Once booted, all outstanding parking fines must be paid prior to the boot being removed, plus an additional $25.00 boot fee.

Outstanding parking fines may be paid by cash, money order or credit card, and the boot fee must be paid in person at the TAPS Sales Office during business hours. If your vehicle has been booted, please contact our office for further information before paying by credit card. Once payment is received, the boot will be removed between the hours of 7am-5pm, Monday-Friday.

Vehicles will be subject to tow after being booted for 72 hours with no payments made on the outstanding parking fines.

Please contact UC Santa Cruz Police Department at 831-459-2231 ext.1 if your vehicle has been towed.



Contesting Citations

If you receive a citation and wish to contest it, you must do so within 21 days from the date the citation was issued.

You may contest your citation online at paymycite.com/ucsc.

Administrative Review forms are also available at the Transportation and Parking Services Sales Office.

For questions regarding citations, you may call (831) 459-4543 during business hours.

To appeal a citation contest decision, you may request a meeting with a Hearing Examiner per CVC 40215(b). For questions about this process, please email taps@ucsc.edu.

 


Fine Reduction Program

Once per fiscal year (July 1 through June 30) you may request a fine reduction if you have a valid parking permit applicable to the space where you received the violation, and either forget to display it or display it improperly.

In order to take advantage of this program, take a photo of the valid permit and contest your ticket online.

After verifying that you have not already used your one annual void and that your permit is valid for the violation on your citation, we will reduce the bail amount for the citation. As stated above, you must do this within 21 calendar days from the date the citation was issued. Once a citation has gone late, it is no longer possible to have it reduced, reviewed or dismissed for any reason.

Effective November 1st, 2022

The bail amount on a fine reduction will be $20.00.
Please know that for each citation issued, we have a fixed cost of $16.18. The breakdown of assessed costs per citation are the following:

  • Criminal Justice Facilities Fund: (GC 76000(b)) (GC76101), $1.50
  • Courthouse Construction Fund: (GC76000(b)) (GC 76100), $1.50
  • County General Fund: (GC 76000(c)(d)): $2.00
  • Immediate and Critical Needs Account: (GC 70372(b)), $3.00
  • State Court Facilities Fund: (GC70372(b)), $1.50
  • Trial Court Trust Fund: (GC 76000.3), $3.00
  • TAPS surcharge: $3.00
  • Processing fee through our 3rd party vendor $0.60

These costs are prior to being assessed the Equipment or Registration Assessment:
Equipment Assessment: (CVC 40225) 50% max of fine
Registration Assessment: (CVC 40225) 50% max of fine


General Reasons Why Violations Won't be Dismissed

  1. Short errands
  2. Late for business or personal appointment
  3. No place else to park—the lot was full
  4. I didn't see the sign—I didn't understand the sign
  5. Only part of my car was illegally parked
  6. I left someone in the car
  7. I left my parking lights on or blinking
  8. I left a note on my car as to my whereabouts with the motor running
  9. It was only a few minutes
  10. Nobody else got a ticket
  11. Someone else had my car
  12. An official saw me park and didn't say anything or said it was okay for a few minutes
  13. This violation has not been enforced in the past
  14. I've done it for years—everybody does it

ALL PERMITS MUST BE CLEARLY DISPLAYED in the bottom corner of the drivers side of the front windshield or hangtag from the rearview mirror.


TAPS Policy for Payment

Revised 2022

US currency or other acceptable form of US tender will be accepted for the following, including but not limited to:

  • All forms of parking fines
  • Booted vehicles
  • Other payments not noted above

Valid photo identification will be required for payment by personal check. Second party checks will not be accepted.

US coins and small bills will be accepted on site in limited amounts only. Maximums per denomination are:

  • Pennies $.50
  • Nickels $1.00
  • Dimes $2.00
  • Quarters $5.00
  • One dollar bills $20.00
  • Five dollar bills $100.00
  • Ten dollar bills $200.00

Payment in coins that exceed the above limits will require an advanced appointment at the UC Santa Cruz Hahn bldg. cashier’s office between the hours of 9am-noon, Monday-Thursday. The cashiers’ office provides a coin counting machine to count the coins and authenticate the total for payment.