Raleigh considers parking-deck fees

Raleigh City Council members expressed interest in beginning to charge a $5 flat rate fee to park in several downtown decks on nights and weekends.

The Wilmington Station, Moore Square, Cabarrus, City Center and Municipal parking decks, which are currently free for use during weekdays from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and over the weekend, are the most feasible to charge for parking because of their high levels of use during these times. However, the fee may be applied to any deck used by the City of Raleigh.

The Raleigh City Council met June 2 to discuss city budget issues when the idea for adding parking deck fees for nights and weekends was brought to its attention.

According to an analysis of the potential revenue from the prospective new parking fees, these decks could produce a projected revenue of around $1 million per year, according to the minutes of the June 2 council meeting.

Data confirms that from Thursday to Saturday nights the city parking decks are close to capacity if not completely full with downtown visitors, according to the meeting minutes.

City of Raleigh records show most vandalism and criminal activity in the decks occur during the nights and weekends. The city has also received complaints about the cleanliness of the decks on Monday morning when people return to work and use the decks, according to the meeting minutes.

Several council members said they believe that the elimination of free parking will help cut down on the rise in criminal activity during these hours in the decks.

However, definitely adding fees to these parking decks is not currently on the agenda but is just an idea under consideration, according to City of Raleigh spokeswoman Jayne Kirkpatrick.

The fees under consideration will only be in effect for parking decks used by the City of Raleigh, which is most of them, Kirkpatrick said. The parking decks owned by the City of Raleigh are managed by McLaurin Parking, and the company will only assist in collecting these charges if the suggestion is eventually accepted.

Installing equipment that would accept the payments electronically would cost $358,474, and using these machines would save $41,340 for staffing reductions with the introduction of the electronic pay-to-exit machines, the minutes stated.

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Raleigh considers parking-deck fees