Visitors to downtown Tucson will be paying more for parking starting July 1. The Tucson City Council voted on Tuesday night to increase rates for some of the most commonly used parking options in the city.
Under the changes, metered parking will jump from $1 an hour to $1.50 an hour. Hourly parking in the city’s garages and surface lots will increase from $1 an hour to $1.25 an hour. Evening and weekend rates at the Depot garage will increase, as will the price of neighborhood residential permits.
The changes are an amendment to the last phase of a multi-year parking plan adopted in 2024. That plan already included higher fees for other kinds of parking, like monthly permits for garages and surface lots. Those changes will also go into effect on July 1.
According to a city memo, Park Tucson needs rate hikes to cover its operational costs and reinvest in parking facilities. At the meeting, Deputy Director of Transportation and Mobility Andy Bemis said almost one-third of Tucson’s parking meters are “in some form of disrepair.” He said Park Tucson’s revenues had covered its expenses until the COVID-19 pandemic changed parking patterns.
Earlier this year, city officials discussed a larger parking rate increase that included weekend meter enforcement. But 4th Avenue businesses and their workers raised concerns about affordability given already-scant parking options in the area, the recent memo said. Those changes are not part of the final proposal.
The memo from the city manager’s office estimates that the new rate changes will net the city $529,105 more a year, in addition to the estimated $107,758 from previously approved changes in the multi-year plan. Most of the increase is estimated to come from the increases to meter rates.
