Overnight and weekend parking permits for Iowa City’s parking ramps went on sale Tuesday morning.
“The evening/weekend parking permits will be available for all City parking ramps and assigned for use at a single parking facility,” the city said in a statement. “The permits are available at 75% of the cost of an all-day parking permit — $67.50 per month — and can be billed quarterly.”
A permit allows a driver to park in the selected ramp from 4 p.m. to 9 a.m. and anytime on Saturday and Sunday. Leaving a permitted vehicle in the ramp after 9 a.m. on a weekend is considered a permit violation, and can result in a fine of $30. To park in the ramp between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. during a weekday, a driver would have to exit the ramp, and follow the regular procedure of getting an hourly ticket and pay the standard parking fee.
The new parking permit program was created as part of the rollback of the new parking fees and fines the Iowa City Council approved in May. It was the first increase in parking fees and fines in 11 years, and was opposed by the Iowa City Downtown District and many downtown businesses. An online petition objecting to the increases gathered more than 1,000 signatures.
The cost of metered street parking doubled, going from $1.50 to $3 per hour. Parking at meters elsewhere increased to $1.50 per hour, up from either 75 cents or $1 per hour, depending on location of the metered spot. The $1 per hour fee at parking ramps doubled, except at the Chauncey Swan and Harrison Street ramps, where the price went up to $2.25 per hour. Free parking for the first hour was extended to all the city’s ramps.
City code requires parking operations to be self-funding. The fee increases were projected to add approximately $3 million a year in parking revenue. The city intended to use the new revenue to the capital improvement fund for parking, pay for increased cleaning in the ramps and the downtown area, and support Iowa City’s fare-free bus service. The fee increases went into effect on July 1.
Many downtown business owners objected to increasing the cost of parking from the levels set in 2013. On behalf of those business owners, the Iowa City Downtown District pushed for the city council to rollback the price of metered parking downtown and to introduce overnight and weekend parking permits for the ramps. The city council voted 8-1 to adopt those changes, giving the proposals final approval during its Sept. 17 meeting.
The cost of metered parking in the central downtown area decreased from $3 per hour to $2.25 per hour on Sept. 23, the Monday following the city council vote. That reduction only applies to metered spaces “within the border of, Iowa Avenue, Gilbert Street, Burlington Street, Clinton Street, and Capitol Street,” according to the city.
The new ramp parking permits can be purchased at the city’s parking office at the Tower Parking Ramp (335 Iowa Ave). Anyone with questions about the permits should email the Parking Division or call the office at 319-356-5151.
City staff estimates the changes to the parking fees, both the parking meter decrease and the ramp permits, will reduce the yearly amount of revenue generated by parking fee increases by $300,000.
