Downtown Sioux Falls readies for paid parking on weeknights, Saturdays
Downtown Sioux Falls readies for paid parking on weeknights, Saturdays
City officials say expanded enforcement hours for metered parking spaces on track for 2025 implementation
The days of free street parking in downtown Sioux Falls on evenings and weekends could be numbered.
City councilors this week were briefed by the Sioux Falls Finance Department that parking meter fee enforcement times are likely to be expanded to include more evening hours and Saturdays, a move that could begin next year.
Right now, vehicles parked on downtown streets between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday are required to pay a meter or risk a ticket. But Sioux Falls Finance Director Shawn Pritchett said Tuesday the city is preparing to expand parking enforcement to as late as 8 p.m. while also including Saturdays in the days on which enforcement occurs.
“That’s been asked for by Downtown Sioux Falls, Inc. and some of those retailers for several years — to avoid people parking there when we already have free parking available overnight,” he said, sharing examples of cars occupying prime parking spots for extended periods, making it difficult for shoppers, diners, or other visitors to downtown to find convenient parking near shops, restaurants, and other establishments.
Pritchett said retailers and restaurants particularly benefit from parking spaces turning over periodically rather than having a single vehicle occupy the same space for hours or even days.
“What you sometimes see is people know when we stop enforcement and … take advantage of high-demand parking that serves our retail and high-demand areas,” he said.
Pritchett said plans call for implementing the expanded enforcement hours in early 2025, with meters being monitored as late as 7 or 8 p.m. While it’s unclear if all 866 meters in the city’s parking system would be included, he noted that the city’s public parking garages and surface lots would continue to be available without charge or lease after 5 p.m. during the week and throughout the weekend.
“Our parking ramps would remain free so that that incentivizes people to utilize facilities where there is ample parking located,” Pritchett said.
Sioux Falls Parking Manager Matt Nelson told The Dakota Scout that Sundays would not be included in the extended hours, and all public parking downtown would remain free that day.
The Sioux Falls Public Parking Advisory Board has yet to make any formal recommendation about expanding enforcement hours, but members have discussed it with general support, Nelson said. By ordinance, enforcement hours are an executive policy that does not require approval of the City Council.
DTSF, Inc. President Joe Batcheller could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
Once again, the TenHaken administration thinks the short cut to solving issues in Sioux Falls is to financially penalize residents, and this time, visitors to the Downtown area. How utterly tone deaf they are.
Reality is that parking is tight in downtown, no doubt about it. However charging for metered parking never solves the dilemma of people competing for parking. It does, however discourage people from visiting the down town area and this penalizes the down town merchants. They are already struggling and here comes a giant pound sand from the city.
With all of the restaurants opening on the west side of Sioux Falls, and hotels there, why would a tourist even bother coming to the Downtown area knowing the city will fleece them for parking AND ticket them if the meter runs out?
Sioux Falls could invest into renting parking space from businesses that are closed on the weekend within the area and running free shuttles to and from the Downtown area. It doesn't seem that this administration is prone to thinking about impactful solutions that benefit the down town area. They'd rather slap an expensive bandaid on it and hope the property managers can consistently refill the vacancies caused by a down turn in business.
Stop going downtown.