SPOKANE, Wash. — Parking in Spokane could soon get a little pricier. During the Spokane City Council meeting on August 24, Parking Services petitioned the council to be able to raise rates across the city by 50 cents per hour.
Director of Parking Services, Luis Garcia told the council that the department saw $2.4 million in losses in 2020 and another $900,000 in losses in 2021. He said the losses were based strictly on COVID impacts.
According to Garcia, the current rate of $1.20 per hour for parking has not been adjusted since 2011.
Garcia says a 50 cent increase to all parking in the City of Spokane would generate around $1.5 million increase for the department.
A councilman asked Garcia if the department was meeting its 85% occupancy goal across the city. Garcia said, “The reason that the occupancy study has not and could not be done, we've held about four vacancies open for quite some time. So in order for us to have staff perform that using our LPR technology, or even walking to get data to see if we're meeting that 85% threshold, it's kind of a double edged sword there, because I don't have the staff data to show that.”
In March the Spokane City Council approved a $1.8 million contract to add new parking meters downtown. The contract will help purchase 880 single-space and 205 dual-space parking meters.
The council is expected to discuss the proposed parking increase at a later date.
WATCH RELATED: New Spokane parking meters go live today
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