Downtown business owners urge flat parking rates for game nights; council adopts special‑event pricing for Hub City and University decks

Business owners and the Chamber of Commerce urged the mayor and council March 25 to adopt flat parking rates for downtown event nights to keep visitors downtown longer and reduce turnover. The council later approved a special‑event parking resolution establishing higher flat rates for Hub City Garage and a lower flat rate for the University deck when staff anticipates event occupancy of 75 percent or more.

Local business owner who identified himself as Schmidt (address given; owns multiple downtown businesses) told the council he supports the flying boxcars flat rate but asked the council to consider raising the Hub City deck to $15 on event nights, move the A&E deck to $10 and keep the University deck at $5. He argued a flat event rate encourages visitors to stay longer and that game nights account for about 20 percent of parking days but that the city should also study weekend and evening flat‑rate programs to help the other 80 percent of downtown business days.

Paul Fry, representing the Chamber of Commerce and the business community, said the Chamber supports the council’s work on event flat rates and asked to be scheduled for a work session to review more data and metrics. Staff and the mayor acknowledged coordination with City Administrator Scott Niesmore’s team on next steps.

Later in the meeting the council adopted a resolution establishing special event parking rates for two downtown decks: $10 in the Hub City Garage (50 West Antietam St.) and $5 in the University District Parking Deck (25 North Potomac St.) when staff anticipates Meredith Park events will occupy 75 percent or more of Hub City Garage. The special event rate will override the decks’ usual posted rates for those events.

Councilmembers and staff said they would continue to gather data and invited the Chamber and downtown stakeholders to participate in a work session.