The days of free parking in downtown Tacoma are officially numbered.

And that number is 155 – the count of calendar days until electronic parking kiosks can legally begin to pop up across downtown.

By a unanimous vote, with one member absent, the Tacoma City Council on Tuesday approved two measures paving the way for installing such pay-for-parking stations throughout downtown beginning March 31.

That measure effectively means that by next spring, drivers can expect to pay three quarters or more to buy an hour’s worth of street parking in the downtown business core.

With the council’s approval, City Manager Eric Anderson said the city will move forward with a plan to buy about 150 parking kiosks, with purchase and installation of the pay stations covered by about $2 million in revenue bond sales.

The city will install the kiosks in stages next spring across three downtown zones, from roughly the University of Washington Tacoma campus to the south to City Hall to the north, and from east to west between Dock and Market streets, Anderson said.

“We will be working very closely with businesses and the community,” Anderson said. “We hope it will be a very comprehensive roll-out.”

Initial parking rates are expected to be about 75 cents per hour. But that rate most likely will rise over time as the city seeks to hone in on an optimal per-hour price that ensures a 15 percent vacancy rate among downtown parking spaces.

Estimates show that by charging 86 cents per hour, the city should break even once the system is up and running, Anderson has said.

OPTIMAL RATE SOUGHT

Creating such a market-driven demand is key, some downtown merchants have said, to ensure that parking spaces that are now typically occupied all day will turn over enough so that people are drawn downtown.

Under the ordinance adopted by the council, the city will seek to make its parking system self-sustaining, with all revenue generated by parking collections and enforcement put back into a “Parking Enterprise Fund” set up to cover the system’s operating costs.

The ordinance also stipulates that the city manager will oversee the system with the assistance of “a parking management citizen advisory task force.” Anderson will select members of that task force, which will include downtown merchants, citizens and other stakeholders.

“What we want is to have a group that’s large enough to include all the various kinds of stakeholders, but small enough to be workable,” Anderson added.

The task force also will report back to the City Council’s environment and public works committee on an annual basis under language included in the measure’s final version to “provide a tie-in back to city council,” Councilman Jake Fey said.

Once kiosks are installed, the city also will seek to hire two more officers to step up downtown parking enforcement. The officers will be paid for by parking revenue, Anderson said.

EARLY OPPOSITION WANED

At times highly controversial, the pay-for-street parking system is a plan “literally years in the making,” Councilman Mike Lonergan said.

Over the past two years, the city has won over some ardent opponents to initial versions of the plan by holding 18 public meetings with stakeholders and residents and hiring a consultant to help craft a compromise.

Still, city officials have said they expect to hear complaints as the system is established – though at last night’s meeting no one came forward to offer public comment about the parking measure.

Before any widespread installation of pay stations, the city plans to introduce the public to demonstration kiosks and spread awareness of the coming changes through an outreach campaign, Anderson said.

Lewis Kamb: 253-597-8542

lewis.kamb@thenewstribune.com