What to know as changes are made to downtown Salt Lake City parking fees

SALT LAKE CITY — It’ll soon cost more to park on downtown Salt Lake City streets.

The city’s new downtown street parking rates take effect this week, increasing the cost of parking from $2.25 per hour to $3.50 per hour. The city is also adding Saturday to its list of days when fees are required, while extending the hours when collections are in effect from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The changes apply to some other parts of the city, such as the city’s meters at Washington Square, in parts of Central City and some areas near the University of Utah. Parking will remain free on all observed holidays and Sundays, and parking in city sections will remain limited to two hours.

Salt Lake City parking sees biggest change since 2019

It’s the biggest change to fees since 2019. City leaders approved the changes earlier this month when finalizing their $512 million general fund budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which begins on Tuesday.

The change, city transportation and public services officials say, correlates with recent shifts in Salt Lake traffic patterns. As KSL.com has reported, the city has yet to recover the worker population it had before the COVID-19 pandemic. That means fewer people downtown during traditional work hours than the previous structure was based on.

Utah’s capital has since shifted to what it calls an “event city.” Over 4 million tickets were sold for events at downtown venues last year, which surpassed pre-pandemic levels, according to the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance. The addition of the Utah Mammoth and a robust sales year at Eccles Theater, among growth at other venues, helped fuel downtown visitation.

That’s left downtown busier in the evenings and on weekends, which, in turn, has strained street parking that’s designed for shorter stays for people shopping at the retail and restaurant spaces downtown, said Julie Crookston, deputy director of operations for the Salt Lake City Department of Public Services.

“There wasn’t as much incentive to leave once you had parked,” she said. “So people were staying longer, and it meant that those who were trying to visit some of those small businesses in the evenings or on the weekends were either having to park farther away or to park in other places.”

The incoming changes, she says, aim to reopen those two-hour spots more frequently during the city’s new busy hours, while people staying for longer periods find long-term parking in other locations. It only applies to on-street parking and not parking at privately owned garages, such as City Creek Center or the Gateway.

City officials have been promoting the changes on social media to warn residents and visitors before Tuesday. Their posts were predictably met with pushback from people unhappy with the rising costs. Several people wrote that they believe the changes will discourage people from going downtown and potentially harm the businesses the city says it’s trying to help.

“If you want to be an event city, we need more long-term parking, not more expensive short-term parking,” one person wrote.

Salt Lake City leaders began looking at changes to parking beginning in 2022, when they launched a study to review parking challenges as the city grows. The new rates resemble those of similarly sized U.S. cities, Crookston said. She adds that time will only tell how the changes will influence downtown parking behaviors, but the rates charged in other cities haven’t ended on-street parking demand in those places.

The money collected from parking fees goes back to the city’s general fund, which is used for many things, including street and sidewalk repairs and bike lanes throughout the city.

Related: $33,000 in SLC parking tickets issued for these ADA stalls in 2 months