S.F. parking fees set to resume Monday

Start saving your loose change and get your parking app ready to roll again.

The city of Santa Fe plans to resume its pay-for-parking program next week after offering nearly three months of free parking during the COVID-19 crisis.

The action comes as part of a city announcement made Wednesday declaring a fiscal emergency and a renewal of public health guidelines put in place in mid-March in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

City officials estimate they are facing a $100 million shortfall for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Restoring parking fees — which Mayor Alan Webber suspended in mid-March, shortly after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency for New Mexico because of the public health crisis — could at least bring in a few hundred thousand dollars every month, based on parking division figures from last year.

For example, in April 2019, the city took in over $194,000 with its parking meters and more than $106,000 in city parking garage fees.

In May 2019, meter revenue topped $215,000 and garages took in over $137,000.

Webber said in March that suspending parking fees would help alleviate financial concerns that some may have because of business closures and the loss of jobs due to the pandemic, which has crippled the local, state and national economies.

Since then, both residents and visitors to the city have enjoyed free parking.

But that will end soon. Effective Monday, drivers will have to once again pay at city meters. Beginning July 1, city parking garages will again charge for parking.

City spokeswoman Lilia Chacon said that as businesses slowly reopen, “we want to see the retailers get the benefit of customer turnover at the meters, while we start to generate a revenue stream from parking fees.”

Wednesday’s reproclamation of city emergency measures included the extension of a measure that prohibits landlords from evicting tenants who cannot pay rent.

The city also is extending a policy Webber put in place in March to end shutoffs of water service for customers who cannot pay their bills, though charges will continue to be accrued and owed once the emergency subsides.

Most of the other mandates in Wednesday’s announcement follow state guidelines regarding the wearing of face masks in public, maintaining social distancing of at least 6 feet, gathering in groups of no more than five people and pursuing current directives on business operations.