Council To Consider Parking Price Increase For Uptown and South End

CHARLOTTE, NC – Parking prices in Uptown and South End could be going up in the near future.

The Charlotte city budget calls for an increase in prices from $1 dollar an hour to $1.50 an hour.

“It makes me just want to take the train,” said Jason Williams, a lifelong Charlotte resident.

“It doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies. It’s already pretty expensive,” said Williams.

Finding parking is already an issue for many. And now, the Charlotte city council is considering increasing prices by .50 cents and requiring payment on the weekends.

“I don’t think it will affect my habits too much,” said Ian Kunsey, a South End resident.

He says he’s not too bothered by the potential increase. Street parking prices have remained the same since the 1990’s.

“I just hope that they use that money for road repairs, things like that,” said Kunsey.

“We’re not solving the problem. We’re just jacking up the prices during the week and making it no longer free to park on the weekends. It doesn’t seem like a good answer at the best of times,” said council member Tariq Bokhari.

He says the possible change to the price structure would generate about $700,000 for the city to be used for road improvements.The road improvement budget is more than $30 million dollars.

“It’s something that is a drop in the ocean for what the problem it’s supposed to solve and it’s creating it’s own problem at the same time,” said Bokhari.

Some on the council are in favor of incentivizing mass transit, walking, and biking. They see the solution to the parking problem by discouraging people from driving into high density areas like South End and Uptown.