(Crain's) — Parking in the city's metered spaces will be more expensive in the new year.

Chicago Parking Meters LLC, which bought the right to manage Chicago's parking spots for decades to come, is initiating the first of three annual rate hikes on Sunday.

The steepest increase of 75 cents will come at parking meters inside the Loop. Rates there will jump nearly 18%, to $5 an hour, between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. They will be $2.50 an hour from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Chicago Parking Meters said in a statement that the highest rates apply to less than 3% of the city's roughly 36,000 parking spots. The Loop is defined as the area between Wacker Drive (on the north and west), Congress Parkway and the lake.

Drivers parking outside the Loop will see rates jump 20%. Parking rates in the area bounded by the lake to Halsted Street and from North to Roosevelt avenues will see rates rise to $3 from the current $2.50 an hour.

Parking meters outside of downtown will cost $1.50, up from $1.25 next year.

A spokeswoman for Chicago Parking Meters declined to comment further.

The increases will begin in the Loop and radiate throughout the city by the end of January.

The 2011 increase was part of a management contract with the city that has been heavily criticized for its shortcomings. Mayor Richard M. Daley sought a private manager for the parking spots and signed the $1.15-billion deal with Chicago Parking Meters for a 75-year lease period. The money has since been spent, and critics believe Mr. Daley undervalued the deal.

Loop parking rates are set to rise another 75 cents in both 2012 and 2013 while the remaining downtown meters will jump 50 cents in each of those years. Parking meters in the neighborhoods will charge 25 cents more in 2012 and again in 2013.