It’s a matter of small change.
Downtown parking garage users can expect to pay 5 cents more per half hour staring July 1. The details of the rate hike were formally ironed out Tuesday night by the East Lansing City Council.
The increased rate will only after 8 p.m. and will last through evening hours.
Parking in Lot 1, located behind Student Book Store at 421 E. Grand River Ave., will increase 10 cents per parking after 8 p.m. And downtown parking on MSU football Saturday’s will cost $1.50 per hour, after two hours at the base price. Those increases are expected to generate $96,000 for ramp maintenance.
“We do a little something to each garage each year.” Parking Administrator Dan O’Connor said.
He added the city will spend roughly $148,000 during the 2003-2004 fiscal year on major structure improvements such as repairing concrete cracks and painting beams, whereas the city will try to spend $32,000 this year on ramp improvements.
“We had so much construction downtown this year, that we hope the volume will increase for parking,” O’Connor said, adding the opening of City Center stores also will help increase parking revenue bringing in an additional $125,000 for the city’s ramps.
Motorists in East Lansing have mixed viewpoints on the plans.
“Any raise is a little much,” said Jeff Hall, an interdisciplinary studies in social science senior. “I don’t see why they’re raising it now, especially when they just opened another (garage).”
Hall said he uses the ramps for his daily commutes to MSU, and he said the small fee hike can add up fast.
Lansing resident Jay Samek said he has always avoided parking in the ramps and that tradition will not be changing anytime soon.
He said he only uses the ramps when no other downtown parking space is available and said the increase should not be problematic for people who seldom use the ramps.
“I park in other parking lots because it is convenient,” he said.
East Lansing resident Jason Dilley just returned back to living in East Lansing for the second time, after previously living in Virginia. Upon his return home, he took extreme measures.
“I moved closer to town so I wouldn’t have to park here,” he said. “It’s crummy. It’s expensive to park here.”
Dilley currently still parks in the garage about three times a week, when he goes shopping and dining by himself and with his family.
East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows said the increase should not be a burden on commuters and residents because the increase is so small. He also said Lot 1 is “jammed pack” after 8 p.m., so the increased charges seemed appropriate.
“I always worry about increasing parking rates, but people come down there for entertainment purposes in the evening and I think that will continue because parking lot number one is convenient,” Meadows said.
The council also approved raising city employee parking permits by as much as $10, which will add up to $43,300 in revenue.
Even though the increases may be small, Dilley still isn’t convinced.
“If it’s not the parking garages, then you feed the meter,” he said. “They always get you.”
