Downtown Tacoma drivers will soon pay more to park at the curb as the city moves into the final stage of a multi-year effort to reshape how parking works in the
Downtown Tacoma drivers will soon pay more to park at the curb as the city moves into the final stage of a multi-year effort to reshape how parking works in the city’s core.
Beginning Oct. 13, the cost of on-street parking in Tacoma’s downtown core will increase from $1 to $1.50 per hour. The city said the change applies to current meter zones and is part of a data-driven update that began in 2025, aimed at creating a more balanced and predictable downtown parking network by pairing short visits with on-street spaces and longer visits with city-owned garages.
The update follows a major finding from a 2024 downtown parking study that showed up to 31 percent of on-street stalls were occupied by the same vehicle for five hours or longer. The study also found there were thousands of open stalls in city-owned garages and lots during peak time periods.
The city said on-street spaces are intended for shorter visits, while garages are intended for longer stays. Parking time limits will remain in effect.
“As a downtown business owner, I see how important it is for people to get where they need to go as efficiently and conveniently as possible,” said Joseph Loran, co-chair of the Parking Technical Advisory Group. “The Parking Technical Advisory Group spent a lot of time with City staff looking at parking data and talking through what was and wasn’t working as well as it could. We kept coming back to the need for a better balance between people stopping for a short visit, typically clients, customers and visitors, and people who need to park all day, typically employees.”
Before changing on-street rates, the city adjusted pricing at participating city-owned parking facilities to better support all-day commuters and workers. The city said the daily maximum price was reduced from $16 to $12, and hourly parking was reduced to $1 for the first four hours, then $3 per hour after that.
The city also introduced a Downtown Parking Savings Pass that offers registered parkers a 20 percent discount on the daily maximum, and launched a Reduced-Rate Monthly Parking pilot program.
In addition, on-street parking switched to pay-by-plate with expanded mobile payment options, and the city removed the requirement to leave paper tickets in car windows.
