Paid parking to come up for another vote Tuesday. Here are Wichita’s latest options
After receiving swift backlash from community members and downtown business owners earlier this year, the Wichita City Council will finally vote Tuesday on how it will implement paid parking.
The paid parking system will affect most of downtown Wichita, Old Town, and the Delano neighborhood.
The city has pursued paid parking downtown, saying it needs more money to maintain existing parking options.
The city council has five options to vote on. One option is not keeping things the way they are now.
The other four options all include:
Paid parking from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Sundays would be free.
Metered parking would start at $0.75 an hour, with daily rates at $5 for surface lots and $10 for covered lots. Monthly rates start at $35 for surface lots and $70 for covered.
One option would allow for free parking up to 15 minutes. Another option would allow up to an hour of free parking.
A third calls for no paid parking in the Old Town area. In exchange, the city would either implement a one percent community improvement district (CID) sales tax in the area or increase rates for Old Town businesses that already pay for parking for their employees and visitors.
A recently proposed option takes a phased approach to starting a paid parking system, beginning next year with surface lots and parking garages. Parking meters for on-street parking would be introduced the following year.
Paid parking would not be implemented in the Delano area, and instead would be reevaluated after construction of the multimodal center, which includes a parking garage with 400 spaces.
Old Town would also be exempt from paid parking in the recently proposed option, but like one of the other options, the city would implement an additional sales tax in the area or increase rates for Old Town businesses that already pay for parking for their employees and visitors.
Paid parking downtown would have begun Jan. 1, according to a contract the city signed with Idaho-based private management company The Car Park. But officials said that wouldn’t happen after the City Council moved to delay purchasing the equipment needed to implement the plan.
The city heard feedback on the parking plan at nearly a dozen public meetings in August.
The council will discuss the options at its final evening meeting of the year at 6 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall. Residents can speak about the parking plan during public comment on the item, or contact their city council member beforehand.