Finding a parking spot in downtown Omaha for some people can be a pain, and then on top of that a rate increase has you paying more for that precious open spot.
The rated increased on October 13, 2015 and one of the main selling for Park Omaha was to increase the traffic and turnover in downtown and the Old Market.
“That certainly has worked to our benefit now is that we are seeing a turnover on the street that means the businesses are seeing the cars,” said Park Omaha division manager Ken Smith.
That way vehicles aren't staying at a stall for hours on end.
The parking meter hours used to be 8:30a.m. to 5p.m. then changed to 9am-9pm Monday through Saturday. In the Old Market the rates went up .50 cents per hour.
These increased rates are paying off for Park Omaha, the revenue coming in since 2012 was $1,742,434 and in 2016 that more than doubled to $3,578,876 and Smith is expecting about $3.7 million for 2017.
“We've seen a lot more residents downtown more businesses open since then, so I think those two hand in hand will push those projections higher,” said Smith.
Another interesting trend Smith said is that more people are using the parking garages and citations overall are down over the past few years.
Some still don’t like to see the sights of a parking meter like Madison Moores, “I hate parking in Omaha. It's the worst.”
These increased rates are paying off for Park Omaha, the revenue coming in since 2012 was $1,742,434 and in 2016 that more than doubled to $3,578,876 and Smith is expecting about $3.7 million for 2017.
All of the money coming in goes into an Enterprise Fund which is only spent on parking operations. Smith said Park Omaha is now self-sufficient from the new revenue and does not take any money from the City’s general fund budget.
