Rochester offering extra hour of free parking in downtown ramps
For the rest of the year, the City of Rochester is doubling the amount of time people can park for free inside the city’s six parking ramps.
The program, which began June 1, is entirely funded through a portion of the city’s $17.4 million American Rescue Plan allotment. Other programs funded by ARPA include the waiver of liquor license fees for bars and restaurants through 2021, renovating the roof of Rochester Public Library, and waiving admission fees for municipal pools throughout the summer.
“We’re using the money for what it’s intended to do: keep our communities moving along and moving forward,” said city communications coordinator Nick Lemmer.
Lemmer says the parking program is intended to help encourage residents to get downtown and support the surviving retail stores, which were severely hampered by the effects of Covid-19.
“It has a lot to do with having a strong and vibrant downtown,” said Lemmer. “The last 14 months have been extremely difficult, especially for our downtown retailers. We’ve done a number of things [to help] from a policy standpoint, and this is an extension of that.”
Shawn Fagan, owner of Fagan Studios in downtown Rochester, says his business has no parking available right outside, so clients have to find alternatives — whether it’s in the Third Street Ramp a block away, or at the meters across Fourth Street SW. His sessions very rarely run over the 90-minute mark, so his clients are now virtually guaranteed free parking for their entire shoot.
“It’s nice to know that and to let our clients know that’s an option,” said Fagan. “People still get anxious about parking downtown sometimes, so if we can take an ounce of that barrier away, I think that will be a benefit — not just for us, but those people will have a better experience downtown and hopefully feel better about coming back.”
Other aspects of Rochester parking are unchanged — the downtown meter payment structure remains in effect, and the payment structure for parking ramps will stay the same if the stay is longer than two hours. Additionally, these rules are only in place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays — at any other time, parking in the ramps is free.
“We’re going to rebound faster, I think, than a lot of other communities, but we want people to know that we’re part of the lift,” said Lemmer. “We want to be a hand up, not an impediment.”
Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.
