WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — A slight change is coming to the change in how much parking costs in downtown Wausau.
Tuesday night the city’s finance committee approved a slight fee increase for parking after 2 hours at the mall ramps, the Jefferson ramp, and 6 street lots. Finance Committee chair Lisa Rasmussen says the fee change only affects how much parking costs after 2 hours.
“They [the fees] used to step up were in the ramp if you were in the ramp at the start of the 3rd hour, you’d pay a quarter, then 50 cents, then 75 cents. Now as soon as the two hours elapse, that next hour is a dollar.”
With the new fee schedule, each additional hour after 2 hours will be a dollar. Rasmussen explains that’s the same whether it’s only 3 hours or something more. “It says additional hours are a dollar. So each additional hour should be a dollar on that schedule.
“And you know before that they would step up in 25 and 50 cent increments so it took considerably longer. A lot of those spaces are changing out in the first 2 hours anyway.”
Even with slightly higher fees, Rasmussen explains Wausau’s downtown parking is cheaper than most cities of a similar size. “When you look at municipal parking structures in other similarly sized communities, we’re still competitive.
“In fact, we were way cheaper than many of those. So we were a little bit behind on some of those rates, to begin with. So this also will alleviate at least in the two mall ramps some of the loss of revenue that we see.”
The fee change was approved unanimously by the Finance Committee. The city council will have the final vote on the fee change at their next meeting on October 22nd.
The six street lots affected by the fee change are library lot on Scott St., the 3rd and Grant St. lot, 3rd St. and McClellan, the Jefferson St. lot, the Jefferson Inn and Federal Building lot, and the lot on 4th and Washington Streets. This is the first time the fee for the mall parking ramps has changed since the building opened in 1983.
