Berkeley to raise parking meter rates, eyes extended hours

A street parking meter with a sticker that reads "two hour limit" Parking meters in Oakland. Credit: Amir Aziz/The Oaklandside

Berkeley will soon raise hourly rates at some parking meters, and is considering charging for spots during evening hours and on Sundays.

Officials say those changes are needed to address a deficit in the city fund for parking meters and off-street lots that is expected to reach $2 million in the next fiscal year, driven in part by debt payments on the $40 million downtown parking garage that opened in 2018. The City Council signed off on the parking rate hikes Tuesday night.

Berkeley plans to increase its maximum hourly rate on several blocks where the demand is highest — including some in the Fourth Street shopping district, downtown and in the Southside neighborhood — from $3.50 per hour to $4. Some meters in the North Shattuck area and near Alta Bates hospital, among other areas, will go up by 50 cents as well.

The city is also raising the floor for parking rates, from as little as 50 cents per hour to a new minimum of $1.50.

Meanwhile, rates at the city-owned Telegraph Channing Parking Garage will increase by $1 to $2 per hour, depending on how long you park there; meters near Memorial Stadium will get a surcharge of about 50% on Cal football gamedays; and the charge for permits in city garages will increase by $20 per month.

The new rates take effect March 1. Public works staff estimate they will generate an extra $660,000 per year.

Meters could be enforced until 8 p.m.

The council also gave Berkeley’s Public Works Department the green light to study several ideas to squeeze more revenue out of its parking spaces.

That could include extending the hours when meters are enforced from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., a time when public works staff wrote in a report that there are “many blocks” where parking spaces fill past the city’s target of no more than 85% occupancy. That level of demand can lead to drivers circling in search of a space and adding to traffic congestion.

San Francisco officials in 2023 rolled out a plan to extend parking meter hours to 10 p.m., but dropped it in the face of opposition from business owners and supervisors, according to the San Francisco Chronicle; the city’s parking meters still operate only until 6 p.m.

The idea of charging for parking on Sundays in Berkeley isn’t a new one — the City Council asked public works staff to study the idea more than four years ago, though it never advanced to a final proposal. Oakland began enforcing its meters on Sundays earlier this month, and Walnut Creek has for years.

Public works officials are also looking into installing meters on several blocks that don’t currently have them, including at the Hopkins Street shopping district, near Fourth Street and along portions of Telegraph and San Pablo avenues.

The department plans to study the potential changes by collecting data and doing public outreach, and would have to return to the City Council for final approval before they could be implemented.

A driver backs into a parking space in front of the shops on Hopkins Street, where dozens of bicyclists are taking part in a rally. Berkeley will consider installing parking meters in the Hopkins Street shopping district. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight

Budget woes extend to parking programs

Berkeley made more than $14 million from its parking meters and three city-owned garages in the most recent fiscal year. But city staff said operating expenses, nearly $2 million in annual debt payments for the Center Street Garage and the need to replace about 2,000 aging single-space meters and 175 pay stations will drive the parking fund deep into the red without more revenue. (Parking tickets don’t contribute to the parking fund; they are paid into the city’s general fund.)

The rate hikes and long-term changes would be enough to keep the parking fund out of deficit through the 2031 fiscal year, according to the Public Works Department.

The council approved the item without discussion as part of the consent calendar at its meeting Tuesday.

Staff wrote that the moves to increase revenue “strengthen the city’s financial position, optimize resource allocation, and support the city’s commitment to fiscal responsibility.”

Alex Knox, executive director of the Telegraph Business Improvement District, complained in a public comment that the Southside neighborhood’s dated parking garage would see some of the biggest price hikes under the plan.

“It’s unfortunate that the debt service on Center Street is driving rate increases city-wide,” Knox said. “Services are not equitable and fair — we still have shameful conditions from long-term neglect at the Telegraph Channing Garage.”

Berkeley to raise parking meter rates, eyes extended hours

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