Bend seeks to free up downtown parking by raising rates

BEND, Ore. (AP) - A Bend panel is seeking to free up on-street parking downtown by raising rates for employees allowed to park in those spaces.

The city’s downtown parking advisory committee heard a pitch earlier this month to double monthly parking fees for on-street spaces for employees of the city and downtown businesses while reducing costs in the parking garage and off-street lots, The Bulletin reported Saturday.

Raising the parking costs for on-street spaces is intended to move employees to off-street lots, said Drew Dietrich, the city’s parking demand manager. The action isn’t intended to increase revenue for the city, he said.

“If you raise rates on-street and you don’t change rates anywhere else, there’s no incentive to park off-street,” Dietrich said. “We need to shift the demand.”

The city has 1,800 on-street parking spaces, and there are five areas where employees with permits are allowed to park. Under the proposal, most of the on-street parking areas that currently cost $30 per month would increase to $60 a month. Street parking on the east side of downtown would increase to $40 per month.

The garage price would drop from $50 to $40, and the Newport lot would fall from $45 to $20 per month.

A city parking study completed in 2017 found that on-street spaces in the southwestern area were more than 85 percent full during downtown’s busiest hours. The Newport lot was 41 percent full during the same times.

___

Information from: The Bulletin, http://www.bendbulletin.com