ATLANTA — The Georgia State Senate has passed legislation that would place new restrictions on vehicle booting practices in downtown Atlanta.

On Thursday, state senators overwhelmingly approved an amendment to regulate the booting of vehicles in privately owned parking lots. The measure, which now heads back to the House for final approval, would not ban booting outright but would impose new restrictions to bring it in line with current towing regulations.

“This is a bill that would regulate, not ban, booting of cars,” said bill sponsor Sen. Josh McLaurin. “The two basic regulations are already in code; they’re in the towing section.”

If signed into law, the bill would prohibit booting companies from actively monitoring parking lots; a practice critics say encourages companies to wait for minor infractions before quickly immobilizing vehicles. It would also ban kickback payments from booting companies to property owners, which McLaurin says has fueled predatory behavior.

“Those towing regulations are: you can’t sit around and monitor lots. Could you imagine if someone could just wait for you to walk in a store and tow your car? Same thing with booting,” McLaurin explained. “And secondly, no kickbacks. Right now, booting companies are paying up to half their fee to property owners as kickbacks, and that has caused a lot of predatory activity.”

The amendment was attached to an unrelated bill and received bipartisan support in the Senate. McLaurin noted that House lawmakers are also on board. “I will say the House sponsors are not only OK with this amendment, they welcome it. They see this as our opportunity, really our one shot for probably a few years, to get a reasonable, basic regulation done.”

The bill now awaits one final vote in the House before it can be sent to the governor’s desk. If approved, the new law would offer relief to many Atlanta drivers who have long expressed frustration over surprise booting in privately owned lots.