ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Visitors to Old Town Alexandria could soon be paying more to park on the street.
Starting Friday, Sept. 2, the hourly rate for parking will increase from $1.75 to $3 on 12 residential blocks. Along with increasing street parking fees, the city is offering parking garages as an alternative at a discounted price.
The City of Alexandria says the increase will preserve residential parking in the neighborhood.
The current restricted parking hours and the two-hour time limit remains the same. Guests can still park on these blocks for free with a guest permit.
The hourly rate at the Courthouse Garage, located on 111 S. Pitt Street, will be reduced on weeknights and on weekends to $1 an hour, reduced from $2.50 per hour.
The goal is to move visitors away from street parking in Alexandria, to allow residents more room to park. In June 2022, the City Council approved the increase in the hourly parking rate as part of an initiative to protect residential parking in Old Town.
“The use of new pricing to incentivize parking behavior, including charging a higher rate on residential blocks that require non-residents to pay to park and lowering parking rates in underutilized garages, were among the approved efforts,” a press release said.
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The city utilized data from a pay-by-phone provider to determine which blocks had high numbers of non-residents paying to park. In the coming days, the city will post signs on blocks - impacted by these changes - to notify the visitors of the increase rates. ParkMobile will also send out email and in-app notifications to users who park in these zones.
Staff will continue to monitor the data collected for these blocks and garages to evaluate the impact of the change and adjust as needed.
For more information about these parking prices, click here.
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