Free parking ends next month for downtown Auburn.
City Clerk Chuck Mason says parking will mostly return to pre-pandemic policies.
“For on-street parking, you’ll have the parking meters and the meter kiosk boxes that are sitting on each block,” Mason said on FLX Morning. “People will need to pay at the rate of $1.00 per hour. The parking lots around the city will be serviced by the kiosk parking boxes.”
The first two hours at the parking garage’s upper levels will be free. Parking longer will incur a $1.00 dollar per hour fee.
Free parking was originally established in 2021 to increase business downtown during the pandemic. Money lost from not charging cars to park was covered during the pandemic by the American Rescue Plan.
As part of the city’s 2023-2024 budget, City Council opted to bring back paid parking downtown.
The decision was not without controversy, however. Executive Director of the Auburn BID, Stephanie DeVito, previously told Finger Lakes News Radio that some downtown businesses felt that free parking incentivized people to shop at their stores while others claimed cars would park over the free two-hour limit, thus preventing other new customers from finding convenient parking.
With the return to paid parking, the city has agreed to increase its courtesy ticket program. If one hasn’t had a parking ticket in the previous 90 days, one will receive a courtesy ticket, meaning one won’t have to pay a fee. The previous program stipulated one must go six months without getting a ticket to be eligible.
Paid parking will return on October 1st.
