The Pennington Street Garage was packed on Thursday morning. Less than a quarter mile away, Tony Ray Baker had just opened up his store, The Tucson Gallery, where he also runs Tucson Trolley Tours.
“It’s just so charming,” Baker gushed, looking out at Congress Street, where Sun Link’s streetcar runs. “I travel all over the world, and we are very fortunate to have very low prices here in Tucson, especially for parking and meters and stuff like that.”
Baker said he rides the streetcar home everyday.
“I would love to be able to pay [for] the streetcar. They don’t accept money right now. And I think that’s a disservice to our community because those of us who are riding it should pay for it,” he said.
Right now, the streetcar is free and the city hopes to keep it that way with the Heart of Tucson Tourism District initiative. In fiscal year 2024, the streetcar served 1.6 million riders, according to the 2024 Annual Report for Sun Tran, Sun Link and Sun Van.
“The idea behind this is that by designating this area as a tourism district, if only for planning and branding purposes, is that it will allow us the ability to align infrastructure, funding strategies, in a way that enhances the visitor experience, really the experience for all of us,” said Samuel Credio, Tucson’s director of transportation and mobility, during the city’s Oct. 5 council study session.
A department memo says one of the main goals is to use tourism-related dollars, particularly hotel tax revenue, to help fund Sun Link operations. Additional funds to support Tucson’s streetcar would come from a proposed increase in parking rates.
The proposal includes a 50-cent increase to metered parking — from the current $1 to $1.50. Hourly rates for certain surface lots and parking garages, including Centro, Pennington Street and Library garages, would increase from $1 to $1.25, while evening and weekend flat fee rates would increase by as much as $2, according to a city memo.
The plan also extends parking meter enforcement hours from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. — an additional five hours past the time residents were paying as recently as May — and starts charging for Sunday parking. Credio said the estimated additional revenue from the increases would be $1.7 million.
“That additional $1.7 million would then be reinvested into the Heart of Tucson Tourism District to support the ideas that we presented to you today,” he told the council. Credio added that the increases would put Tucson in line with the parking rates of other cities like Phoenix and Tempe.
However, a commission tasked with advising the city on transportation matters has raised staunch opposition to key elements of the plan.
In May the Park Tucson Commission agreed to “draft a letter condemning the use of Park Tucson funds to help with transit funding,” according to commission meeting minutes.
The commission is a citizens advisory board for the city on issues of parking, pedestrian, bicycle, transit programs, special events, and capital improvement projects. It represents business, neighborhoods, government and other interests in the Sun Link Streetcar Corridor.
In an Aug. 4 letter to the mayor and council, the commission asked them to “defer consideration of any parking rate increases at this time.”
The commission cited two main reasons for the stance. First, new parking meter enforcement hours were implemented on June 2, when the department of transportation tacked on two extra hours of paid parking on evenings Monday through Friday, with fees ending at 7 p.m. rather than 5 p.m. The city also started charging for metered parking on Saturdays, which had previously been free.
In a May press release, officials with the Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility said the Park Tucson Commission had voted to approve a city recommendation to extend parking meter hours in June. The new hours would “promote the opportunity to reinvest additional revenue towards an improved parking experience for customers,” the release stated.
The commission cited the recent spike in costs for downtown parking as a reason for rejecting any new rate increase.
“Introducing a fee increase so soon after extending enforcement hours would, in our view, be premature and risk undermining the success of this carefully calibrated policy,” the commission’s letter states. “The community and business district need time to adapt before additional changes are layered on.”
Second, the commission believes parking fees should remain dedicated to the city’s longstanding financial plan, which includes maintaining and improving the parking system, funding increased downtown security costs, and ensuring long-term economic stability for the Park Tucson program that took a hit during COVID-19.
“The additional revenue from the extended meter hours is already built into this plan, and early indicators suggest it positions the program on a viable path to sustainability,” the commission stated.
“Accordingly, we urge the Mayor and Council not to treat parking fees as a discretionary revenue source to be diverted into the General Fund,” they added. “Park Tucson’s user-generated revenues are carefully calibrated to maintain and improve the parking system itself.”
Baker, the Tucson business owner, said he has no problem with parking rate increases, especially if it goes toward city improvements.
“If it’s helping tourism, if it’s helping our streets, if it’s helping the downtown corridor — which has become very tourism-centric — then it makes sense to me that people with vehicles who have the luxury of owning a car can pay the extra 25 cents or the extra dollar to maintain that which they’re using,” he said.
Council members at the Oct. 5 study session weighed in on the proposed parking rate increases.
“I know that when I was a student at U of A, not being able to afford paying for parking is what incentivized me to ride a bike or take the bus to get to school,” Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz said. “We are so used to, you know, that we have free parking everywhere, but even though it might be free in that moment, we’re still paying for it in the cost of our groceries, the cost of maintenance, we’re paying for it every other way.”
If approved, the city would enact increased rates in two steps. Increased hourly parking rates for certain downtown garage and surface lots and residential permits would start March 1, 2026. Increased rates for meters and non-residential permits, as well as evening/weekend and monthly permit parking in garages and surface lots, would start July 1, 2026.
The council voted unanimously Oct. 5 during the regular council meeting to approve a resolution “adopting the notice of intent to increase Park Tucson Rates and Fees.”
They also scheduled a public hearing for Jan. 21, 2026. Erica Frazelle, the transportation department’s public information officer, said they’re working on a community outreach plan for notifying residents and gaining their feedback on the proposed rate increases.
There also will be a Park Tucson Commission meeting at the end of November, she said. The commission’s meetings are open to the public and residents can offer their comments on transit issues, including parking rates.
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