“You’re encouraging people from the suburbs to come down to the city and enjoy all the events and then you’re putting the burden on us to pay for parking,” said East Rochester resident Christopher Wilke.

“If we’re looking for a way to generate additional revenue for the city we shouldn’t do it on the people we’re trying to attract downtown,” said Brighton resident Kelly Cheatle.

Cheatle also owns a business in downtown Rochester.

The petition has more than 700 signatures, plus endorsements from 40 downtown businesses.

“I understand sometimes prices are gonna go up but who did we ask and what was the process by which this happened? Did we talk to some of the smaller businesses?” Cheatle asked.

But according to the petition, the city didn’t include any businesses in the conversation which is a major part of the outrage.

Sighting the city’s 32-percent poverty level, the petition calls the change “a hastily made decision with lack of notice and zero input from the community.”

“People on that petition are primarily businesses and organizations and nonprofits invested in revitalizing downtown, people on the front lines of this fight and they weren’t consulted at all,” said Jacob Rakovan, co-owner of The Spirit Room.

Rakovan says this doesn’t just impact customers, it also impacts staff and his business. He tells News10NBC the one-hour meters in front of his business already forced him to close for lunch.

“For them to leave in the middle of the shift, to leave in the middle of lunch service and then they would always miss it and get tickets,” explained Rakovan. “The cost was too prohibitive to our employees to stay open for lunch.”

Now this change is creating more financial ripple effects for his business, open less than a year.

“We’re already seeing people less inclined to stay longer,” said Rakovan. “The say they’re making up for a budget shortfall, the budget shortfall was cause they blew millions of dollars on projects nobody wanted.”

In response to the petition the City of Rochester provided this statement:

” The decision to extend parking meter hours was made during a budget cycle with considerable fiscal challenges. We always work to carefully balance user fees like parking meter rates with the burden placed on city taxpayers.

The extended meter hours apply to weekdays, while both Saturdays and Sundays remain free.The city has met with downtown stakeholders on this issue, and going forward residents and visitors will be able to pay for more than two hours in metered spaces in the evening hours to accommodate this new policy.

The traditional coin meters that do not allow for more than two hours of paid parking will not be enforced after 6 p.m. until the technology can be upgraded. We are continuing to work to upgrade our technology to provide the optimal visitor experience in our Center City.”