Free holiday parking downtown; city continues looking at parking usage, maintenance costs
Parking is free downtown Dec. 16-25.
The city has offered free parking before Christmas annually to encourage residents and visitors to shop locally and support the downtown business community.
Parking is free at all of the city’s roughly 1,000 metered and paystation locations from Dec. 16-25.
The two-hour limit for those downtown spaces will still be enforced and the free parking does not apply to the parking garages.
City staff have said that free parking during the holidays is their way of supporting local business and encouraging residents and visitors to shop and eat downtown, as buying locally strengthens the local economy.
The city owns and operates two public parking garages, in addition to multiple surface lots and meters downtown.
Downtown parking use increased this summer, per city data
The City Commission passed an ordinance in September 1947 to install meters in downtown Great Falls.
Then during a public vote during the 1949 general election, the majority of voters supported keeping parking meters after a 18-month test run and the meters remained ever since.
The 1947 ordinance also established two-hour parking time limits and set parking rates at 1 cent for 12 minutes; 2 cents for 24 minutes; 3 cents for 36 minutes; 4 cents for 48 minutes and 5 cents for an hour. Meters were enforced between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. except Sundays and legal holidays.
The parking program has struggled for years to generate enough revenue to keep up with maintenance costs.
Metered street parking generates about $300,000 annually for the parking fund, which is an enterprise fund that generates revenue through fees for service and fines and is not supported by the general fund.
[Timeline of the Great Falls parking program]
During the Nov. 21 Parking Advisory Commission meeting, the group discussed the parking program’s financial constraints and performance in the North Parking garage following the summer test of free parking.
During the meeting, Brock Cherry, planning director, mentioned that the parking fund budget was reliant on general fund subsidy and the “general fund is tapped.” He said he believed the parking fund was supposed to be self-sufficient.
City approves parking meter increase for downtown Great Falls [2019]
Since at least 2013, City Commissioners and the city manager have been adamant that no general fund support go toward parking and the program is funded by meters, parking permits, tickets and fines. Parking fines previously went into the general fund since when the program was established in 1947, it was managed by the police department. In 2012, the city moved the fine monies to the parking fund, since the program is now managed by the planning department.
The parking fund received no general fund support in the current city budget.
The Electric followed up with Cherry to clarify his comment and he said he meant to convey that if the parking fund can’t sustain itself, it will be general fund dependent.
He said he was incorrect during the meeting in thinking that the cash infusion the parking fund received following the COVID shutdown had come from the general fund, but it was CARES funds.
City approves fines for RV parking; using COVID dollars to replenish some city funds [2022]
Those funds were designed to replenish lost revenue when the city suspended paid parking and parking enforcement during COVID.
The city offered free two-hour parking in the North Garage for the summer and staff said there were more daily users those months, revenues decreased for the garage but increased for the parking program overall, and police calls to the garage decreased.
Usage in the North Garage slumped some from the summer, but September and October daily usage remained higher than the same months in 2023, according to city staff.
Daily revenue in the North Garage was higher in September than the prior year, but dropped in October from the same time last year, according to city staff.
City addressing parking complaints from meal delivery drivers [2022]
Total parking kiosk and PassPort parking app users were down in September from previous year, but up in October over the previous year, according to city figures.
Staff said that it appears they’ve converted some summer parking users to continual users in the North Garage and combined usage in September and October was up 39 percent over the same time last year.
Going forward, city staff said they’re looking at improving signage for parking and educating the public on the pay kiosks on Central Avenue.
Staff was collecting bids this fall and said they hope to review those options with the PAC in January.
Inge Buchholz, a PAC member and owner of Inge’s Fashions, said that the city should add more kiosks on Central so people don’t have to walk to pay for parking.
The kiosks are located at the approximate halfway point on the blocks on Central’s downtown core. The city had to work around trees, light poles and other existing infrastructure to install them so they aren’t all at the exact halfway point.
The kiosks were installed on Central Avenue in March 2021. The kiosks take payment via smartphone app, credit card, cash and coin and commissioners approved their purchase in November 2020.
Paid parking resumes downtown April 2, new pay stations will be installed mid-March [2021]
Buchholz said the hears people coming in to complain about parking and particularly the kiosks.
(Note: The above video was made in 2021 and the Passport Parking app convenience fee has increased to 45 cents)
“They’re the simplest thing, if I can figure it out, they should be able to,” she said. “I really am sick and tired of people complaining about the parking. Why is it so hard?”
She said it was more expensive in other cities and $1 per hour in downtown Great Falls.
Buchholz suggested that free holiday parking run from Thanksgiving through Christmas.
Parking discussions have been similar for years, some action might be taken this fall [2018]
Cherry said that would be nice, but parking revenues are dropping and they have significant deferred maintenance.
Katie Hanning, PAC member and director of the local HomeBuilders Association, said that perhaps they could set up a kiosk at events like the Home and Garden show to demonstrate their use.
A lot of people don’t complete their transactions, leading to parking citations, she said.
The kiosks have instructions on them and the screen walks a user through the process.
City approves 3-year downtown parking contract [2021]
The group had some discussion of adding more kiosks, but Hanning pointed out that they’re expensive.
Cherry, city planning director, asked the PAC to think consider several factors for the long-term parking strategy.
The parking program was already awarded some tax increment financing funds toward garage repairs, projects that were in the works before COVID and have since stalled.
Cherry said staff will amend that application to use the remaining funds for updated projects.
The city is on a month to month contract with its parking management company, SP+, which was acquired this year by Metropolis.
Great Falls parking primer: Challenges, ideas and proposals 2017-2018 [2018]
The garages and surface lots have antiquated technology and Cherry said that with more effective technology, such as gates, the city could capture more revenue from people using those facilities but not paying.
Pingback: Free two-hour parking in North Garage returns this summer - The Electric
Pingback: City Commission takes first look at proposed budget - The Electric
Pingback: City requesting TIF funds for parking operations; recommending fine increases - The Electric