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Oct 29, 2024

Parking meter hours could soon expand in the City of Tucson | News | kvoa.com

The City of Tucson is considering a plan to end free parking after 5pm TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) — Get ready for parking meter hours to possibly extend in the City of Tucson. Get ready for parking meter

The City of Tucson is considering a plan to end free parking after 5pm

TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) — Get ready for parking meter hours to possibly extend in the City of Tucson.

Get ready for parking meter hours to possibly extend in the City of Tucson.

That means you might be paying to park later than usual if you plan to go on a night out on Friday or Saturday.

Even though the City of Tucson owns more than 1,800 parking meters throughout Tucson officials say it is almost impossible for people to find on street parking at areas like Downtown Tucson on Fridays and Saturdays.

The city says it wants to free up space so more people can visit Tucson.

Current parking meter enforcement hours in the City of Tucson right now runs Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Now the city is proposing parking meter enforcement from Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

If the proposal is approved it would be enforced not only for the parking meters in the downtown area but also for Fourth Avenue Business District, University-Main Gate Square and Mercado District.

"We found that after 5 p.m. and on the weekends there is no availability of on street parking. And enforcing hours after 5 p.m. will allow us to manage the time duration in user group that can access the on street parking and this helps prevent vehicles from using the limited curb space for their long term parking needs and opening on street space helps reduce traffic congestion," said Thomas Janowitz, administrator for Tucson Parking.

All of the people News 4 Tucson spoke with in the Downtown Tucson area say they are not in favor of this proposal.

“I don’t think that extending the hours for the meters are actually going to help parking situations down here, if anything it’s just going to make guests have to leave where they’re at to go feed the meters. But I think one of the benefits of having free parking on Saturdays people know that they come down here," said Richard French, the manager at Cobra Arcade Bar.

If you would like to voice your opinion about these proposals you can attend a virtual meeting Oct. 23 or Oct. 29, 2024, on the City of Tucson website.

The city says if the extension of the parking meter hours is approved it would not start until early 2025.