Winston-Salem city council approves contract with parking app plus enforcement, on-street rates to increase

Featured photo: Proposed signage for downtown parking in Winston-Salem. (Photo by Gale Melcher)

Time’s up: Winston-Salem has contracted with PayByPhone, a move that will enforce parking payment all across downtown, during Monday evening’s city council meeting.

Currently, some on-street spots are free; most spots are 25 cents per hour. With this change, on-street parking will cost $1.50 per hour. Off-street parking will remain the same at $1 per hour. Parking will be enforced by Gtechna, and parking fines will jump from the current rate of $15 to $30. 

The city will be promoting a marketing campaign as the parking changes come to on-street spots in spring 2025 and off-street decks and lots in summer/fall 2025.

The company offers a “modern solution,” the city’s Transportation Director. Jeff Fansler said. Increasing turnover downtown is a big priority to the city.

“One of the things we want to do is value our curb space,” Fansler said.

People will be able to download the PayByPhone app and input their information to pay for their downtown parking spots. They can also call a number to pay.

But for older adults, who tend not to have smartphones, this change can seem daunting. According to a 2022 Pew Research poll, 61 percent of adults 65 and older own smartphones compared to 96 percent of people aged 18-29.

But according to Fansler, the city isn’t making much from running their parking program. In fact, they’re left with a hefty subsidy of $700,000 annually.

The city held citizen engagement sessions about the upcoming changes in September, where city staff explained that charging higher rates for on-street parking is a strategy that should drive more people into the city’s decks. Those are “underutilized,” Transportation Operations Manager Reid Hutchins said. Between on-street parking enforcement and deck utilization, the city is losing around $700,000 annually, Northwest Ward Councilmember Jeff MacIntosh and other city staff members asserted at one of the meetings.

“The $700,000 a year deficit that we run, we have run that now for not just the last year, but we’ve been running that for quite some time,” said MacIntosh on Monday. “We’ve been subsidizing downtown parking for quite some time.

“That $700,000 represents what we spend on the BEAR program,” he added. BEAR is a mental health response team that offers an alternative to policing. This year, it’s being funded in part by a $700,000 grant from the federal government. Many local activist groups and council candidates have noted that they want the team to have a permanent place in the city’s budget.

“The federal funding that we get for the BEAR program this year will go away next year. So next year, we’re looking at an equivalent of, ‘Do we want to subsidize parking for $700,000 or do we want to help pay for the BEAR program?’ It kind of puts it into fairly stark terms.” However, MacIntosh noted that he does regret that the rates will jump so high so quickly.

East Ward Councilmember Annette Scippio added that maybe this will encourage people to take the bus downtown.

However, Councilmember Barbara Hanes Burke argued that since this is an election year, with three out of eight council seats certain to be filled by new members — MacIntosh’s included — they should be the ones to make this “huge, massive decision for the city” since they will be the ones who will have to deal with the results over the course of their four year term, rather than the outgoing councilmembers. Burke offered a motion to table the decision until January. Still, the move failed to acquire enough votes, receiving ayes from Councilmembers John Larson, James Taylor, Jr. and Burke and nays from Councilmembers MacIntosh, Kevin Mundy, DD Adams, Scippio and Robert C. Clark. The change ultimately passed with all councilmembers voting in favor except Burke, while an audience member shook their head as they muttered, “That’s not right,” walking out of the room.

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