La Crosse to begin charging evening, Saturday hours in parking ramps

La Crosse will extend the hours in which it charges to parking in the downtown lots beginning in the spring.

No more free parking in the evenings or on Saturdays, after a unanimous 5-0 vote by Andrea Trane, Matt Gallager, Mitch Reynolda, Rebecca Schwarz and Tamra Dickinson on the Board of Public Works for a La Crosse Police proposal at its weekly public meeting Monday.

The La Crosse Police Department runs the city’s parking utility.

Assistant Chief Jason Melby told the board that raising the parking fee is an alternative to collecting money from writing more parking tickets, which is viewed as a negative way of bringing in more revenue.

“We figured (longer hours) could generate somewhere in the area of almost ($250,000) of additional revenue over the course of the year,” Melby said, “assuming that 50 percent of the vehicles that were in the ramp may have been permittees,” — somebody who had already paid for a reserved space in a ramp.

Right now, the $1 rate runs 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays only.

When the new schedule takes effect on April 1, ramps will charge from 6 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The change follows a study of parking habits at the ramps, which was conducted by police during August and September.

Two years ago this month, the city ended the free two-hour grace period to park in the ramps, before beginning to charge.

Melby said it makes sense to apply the parking fee during more hours when the ramps are busy.

Two weeks ago, WIZM’s La Crosse Talk spoke with La Crosse Assistance Police Chief Jason Melby about parking.

The police are in charge of the parking utility. Melby discussed how a rise in remote work from downtown businesses and debt owed on the parking ramps has put the utility in a bind.

La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.