The role of parking as it relates to a growing downtown has always been a topic of debate, regardless of the community you call home. We’ve written about the dangers of using valuable land for surface parking in the past but have also acknowledged that parking is necessary to support businesses downtown, especially where public transportation infrastructure is insufficient. A recent comprehensive downtown parking study conducted by a consultant firm for the City of Knoxville caught our eye and laid out a few interesting proposals. We think that many of the topics discussed will apply to every community, even if most don’t have almost 10,000 total spots like Knoxville. Here are some of the strategies suggested by the report.

One of the largest inefficiencies discussed was the continued existence of legacy coin-only meters for single-space parking. Knoxville spent approximately $119,000 in 2023 on bank fees associated with processing cash and coins from these meters as well as manpower hours collecting from them.

 The City also offers free parking on nights and weekends. Free parking trades in potential revenue to spur commercial activity, which is fine if made as a conscious policy choice. Also, working together with your downtown local businesses to find a middle ground can help you to understand best what it is that your municipality needs.

The implementation of “high-demand” and “low-demand” zones with differing rates and policies was also listed. For example, a low-demand zone may be $0.50/hr and further away from the heart of downtown whereas the high-demand would be $2.00/hr and located within your most premium spots.

You can read the full report here.

Click here for our disclaimer, click here to learn more about our public finance practice, and click here to subscribe to our newsletter.