TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Tucson Mayor and City Council unanimously voted to postpone voting on proposed downtown parking fee increases for up to three months after hearing opposition from business owners and city employees during Tuesday's meeting.
The proposed changes would extend metered parking hours to Monday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., compared to the current Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. schedule. The proposal also includes fee increases for meters, annual residential permits and hourly rates at specific garages and surface lots.
"It's not helpful. Our small businesses need a leg up, not another nail in the coffin," Rachel D’Acquisto said.
D'Acquisto, who owns Ray Ray's Sonoran Spirit Tea in downtown, said the increases could hurt small businesses. In addition, she said because she works downtown, she also parks there and would be affected by fee increases.
"Folks already find metered parking to be a barrier for folks coming to their businesses, and it will make it worse," D'Acquisto said. "If we want to park anywhere close to where we work, we need to use meters."
City employees also voiced concerns about the financial impact. Desi Navarro, vice president of Communications Workers of America Local 7000, contacted KGUN 9’s Andrew Christiansen months ago about this issue.
She works for the City of Tucson and said her $25 monthly parking stipend doesn't cover her $55 monthly parking fee, and the stipend hasn't increased in decades. She also mentioned that other City workers have to pay more than she does because other garages are more expensive.
"Through inflation, through the jacking up the costs in the garage parking, all that has gone up and the stipend has not," Navarro said. "City workers are supplementing their own paychecks by paying the City for the privilege of parking downtown.”
Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz said the City hopes to encourage people to use alternative transportation like the streetcar, or if someone is driving, to park at parking garages and walk to their destinations.
"We're so accustomed to have free parking or cheap parking and not realizing that the taxpayers are actually the ones subsidizing that free parking so we're paying for it, just not when we're actually using our private vehicle," Santa Cruz said. "We just want to make sure that we're rightsizing our parking so that everyone could benefit.”
The Mayor and City Council also unanimously approved an agreement between the city and the Regional Transportation Authority to construct the Blacklidge Bicycle Boulevard.
"This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy."
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
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