The cost of parking at a meter in Ann Arbor is going up on January 1st. The board of the Downtown Development Authority has approved new rates that include a hike for metered parking of ten cents per hour.
Parking garage rates will stay at $1.20 an hour. Monthly permit parking will also cost more next year.
Susan Pollay is the DDA's Executive Director. She says a lot of information went into the decision.
"The board considered a lot of feedback they got from emails, through news stories such as on WEMU and through a public hearing," Pollay says. "After much discussion that went on over several meetings they decided to approve a rate change at the beginning of the new year."
Pollay says the cost of operating the parking system goes up every year, but parking rates do not. This will mark the first time in over two years Ann Arbor parking rates have increased.
Pollay says the city's parking operation is capital-intensive, and the money raised goes right back into the maintaining the system.