More people park in downtown Boise. Rate boosts were just proposed. Here’s how much
Nearly two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, usage of downtown Boise parking garages is finally near where it was in early 2020.
The increased usage means parking rates could soon increase.
But don’t sweat yet. The hourly rate will remain at $3 and the first hour will still be free. The proposal from the staff of the Capital City Development Corp., Boise’s urban renewal agency, which owns and operates the six ParkBoi garages downtown, mostly targets monthly permits.
The proposal, which was presented to the agency board on Tuesday, includes a price increase of 5% to 10% for most monthly permits. At the Ninth and Main garage and the Capitol and Main garage — ParkBoi’s two busiest garages — the monthly permit rate would increase 9%, from $175 a month to $190 a month. At those two garages, the weekday hourly maximum would bump to $20 from $15.
The monthly permit price for the 11th and Front garage would increase 25%, from $100 to $125, but would remain the cheapest permit available. Every other proposed permit rate increase is 10% or less.
The proposal includes increasing the weekend daily maximum in all garages to $8 from $6.
The potential price increases are scheduled to be considered by the board on March 14. The agency planned to launch an online survey this week at parkboi.com and keep it open until Feb. 28. It also plans to notify customers and issue a public notice before the March 14 meeting. If the rate increases are approved, they’ll go into effect May 1.
“We try to employ demand-based pricing,” Parking and Mobility Director Matt Edmond said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We like to say in the business (that) parking can be convenient, cheap and/or available, but it can’t be all three. You basically have to pick two. So the objective of rate adjustments is generally to target higher rates to maintain availability at those higher demand facilities and direct some of that demand to areas where availability is generally not an issue.”
The increases would also make up for rising operating and maintenance costs and help pay for parking and mobility initiatives to improve customers’ experience, Edmond said.
Part of Edmond’s explanation for the price increases was to come up with a way to direct people away from the two most popular garages. The Ninth and Main garage and Capitol and Main garages have filled up recently while other garages have more space available.
“Daily max parkers could potentially be displacing those people coming downtown for a very short period,” Edmond said.
From November 2019 to February 2020, the Ninth and Main garage reached a peak occupancy of 89.4%. In November and December 2021, the garage was at 86%.
At the Capitol and Main garage, peak occupancy hit 84.4% before the pandemic compared with 93.9% in the past two months.
A parking facility is generally considered to be at capacity when 85% or more of its spaces are taken, according to the agency.
The new proposal also features an option for employers to pay for a certain number of parking spaces at any given time rather than for a certain number of permits for individual users. Edmond said this is based on companies embracing hybrid models in which employees work from home part-time and in the office part-time. For example, instead of paying for 50 permits, an employer could pay for 25 spaces.
Edmond said his department was considering rate increases before March 2020, but those plans were “rendered moot” when the pandemic hit and garage usage plunged.
It’s been a slow climb back, but the agency’s statistics show demand is just about back. Hourly revenue is about 80-85% where it was pre-pandemic and overall entries into garages are about 90-95%. At the two busiest garages, usage has exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 1% to 2%, Edmond said.
“It’s great to see our numbers are back up,” CCDC board Chair Dana Zuckerman said. “Hopefully that means that the businesses of downtown Boise are doing well. That’s what I’m reading here.”
