Parking cost increase approved, nights and weekends free downtown

Reserved parking prices also rose

It’s going to cost more to park in downtown La Crosse’s parking ramps, beginning July 11.

More, unless you count nights and weekends.

The parking utility board approved a rate increase Wednesday and confirmed the date the parking gates will be reinstalled.

Cost now will be $1 an hour – the first three hours free – which is up from $.75 an hour before the gates were taken down.

The rates will only apply from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

“You’re still going to get three hours free,” new La Crosse parking utility coordinator Jim Flottmeyer told the board. “So if you’re in there at noon, we’re still going to charge you up until 6 o’clock, even if you’re in there until 8.

“So, the revenue still will come.”

Nights and weekends will be free, eliminating the $.50 an hour rate from 1-8 a.m. before.

Also, in October, permit fees for the ramps will rise to a flat rate of $40 per month for weekday parking – $55 for Market Square’s lower level for all times – and $100 if a customer insists on a specific parking stall during the daytime hours. Rates before were anywhere between $36.93-$52-75.

Board member James Cherf suggests that raising those rates appear to punish people choosing to live downtown.

“We’re singling out people who already are paying awfully high rent rates compared to the rest of the community, to pay a higher rate to park,” he said.

Flottmeyer argued with Cherf on that.

“One hundred a month is just for that guy who’s got to have that spot,” Flottmeyer said. “It’s their lucky spot. They got to have it. They saw Jesus there, whatever. It’s gotta be their spot.”

Flottmeyer added, if they just have to have that spot, they’ll be willing to pay the extra amount.

Also, the board has recently looked into alternatives for the parking gates, which were often malfunctioning or vandalized before being removed in February.

And, until July 11 the ramps will remain free for the first three hours and then you could be ticketed – the same as if you were in a two-hour zone on the street.