In two months, commuters who use Metro's Grand Parkway park and ride to get to work downtown will have it made in the shade, but for a handful at a cost that might one day appear at other transit lots around the area.

Workers are putting the finishing touches on a 1,650-space, six-floor parking garage meant to relieve one of the most far-flung and crowded commuter lots in Metropolitan Transit Authority's sprawling Houston service area. The $21.1 million garage, which will be owned by a commercial developer and leased to Metro, is expected to open sometime in February, Metro spokesman Jerome Gray said.

For longtime park-and-ride users who spent months fighting for space in the adjacent lot to the new garage, which Metro shares with a movie theater, the opening is long-overdue relief.

"They should have solved this (problem) three years ago," said Bill Hughes, 55, who lives about four miles from the park-and-ride lot along Fry Road.

Transit officials struggled in 2014 to find a solution to huge overcrowding issues at the Grand Parkway location. Metro had estimated 640 people were parking and riding commuter buses downtown, well above the 423 parking spots the agency leased.

Though park-and-ride use overall has declined in recent months - which transit officials blamed on area job cuts - Metro CEO Tom Lambert said last month the Grand Parkway parking lot was "busting at the seams."

After a proposal for an additional lot beneath the Grand Parkway on Texas Department of Transportation land fell through last year because of safety issues related to buses connecting back to the frontage roads, Metro opted for the agreement with NewQuest, owner of the commercial development that includes the nearby theater. Metro has a long-term lease for the new garage costing about $1.2 million a year.

Vehicles will enter the garage from three sides, with the front along the northbound Grand Parkway frontage road designed specifically for commuter buses and dropping off passengers. Once inside the garage, commuters can walk directly to the front where buses will load beneath a metal covering. A two-person crew last week erected a large Metro logo along the awning.

Ample parking spaces and the benefit of covered parking, however, comes with a price - or more specifically a price change. Metro officials in October approved charging $2 to park in the garage during the morning, while at the same time lowering fares on the Grand Parkway park and ride.

Prices for park-and-ride service are set in Houston based on the distance away from the central business district, ranging between $2.50 and $4.50. As one of the park and rides farthest from downtown, Grand Parkway commuters pay $4.50.

Once the parking garage opens, commuters will pay $2 to park and then $2.50 to ride the bus. Entry to the garage will require someone to have a Q card - the transit system's smart card used for bus and train trips - they can swipe to raise the mechanical arms at the entrance.

Those who carpool and want to use the garage as a gathering spot can buy a Q card and pay $2 to park, Metro officials said. The gates then will automatically raise after the morning commute, and parking is free thereafter for use by the theater and nearby shops in the development.

"This is essentially an interim step while we discuss our long-range policy on parking," Metro board member Christof Spieler said in October, when officials approved charging at the Grand Parkway.

The parking charge at the Grand Parkway garage is similar to the rate commuters pay to park at the Cypress park and ride. Metro also charges to park at the Fannin South Transit Center, at the southern end of the Red Line light rail line.

Eventually, Metro officials said they will need a policy for determining when to charge people for parking to reduce use by others without adding to the price for park-and-ride buses. In preliminary discussions, officials have said the threshold could be charging once average use of parking spots reaches 95 percent of capacity of any Metro-maintained lot. Based on that criteria, four additional Metro lots - the Magnolia Transit Center at the eastern end of the Green Line light rail, the West Bellfort park and ride and a planned transit center on Westpark and the Northwest Transit Center that are both tied to Post Oak dedicated bus service - would reach capacity by 2020.

Officials cautioned it will take months of study to work through analyzing a parking policy and polling park-and-ride users. Any parking charges also have to be fair and encourage transit use as opposed to cater to other interests, Metro board member Jim Robinson said.

"If you are a letting a non-rider park there for the same thing (as a transit user), you are not encouraging them to ride," Robinson said. "Isn't that like subsidizing them for not using Metro?"