UPDATE: This post has been updated with reaction from the business and labor community.



Portland's Transportation Bureau wants to increase hourly rates for its 7,619 on-street downtown parking spaces by 25 percent next month.

The City Council will vote in two weeks on the proposal to increase meter rates from $1.60 an hour to $2 an hour effective Jan. 29.

The increase is projected to free street parking, which officials say is increasingly difficult to come by almost everywhere downtown in the afternoon and after 7 p.m., when parking becomes free.

Drivers end up circling, officials said, increasing congestion and posing a risk to pedestrians. At least one-third of downtown traffic is caused by drivers trying to find parking, they said.

Dylan Rivera, bureau spokesman, said, ideally, drivers would find a free space in every block at any given time. The rate change is expected to lower the "occupancy level," which hovers above a desired 85 percent.

Some advocates pushed the city to raise the rate even more, arguing that street parking shouldn't be cheaper than the $2.50 bus and light rail fare.

But Rivera said a consultant's report showed $2 would be enough to free spaces.

The increase is expected to generate at least $4 million in annual revenue, which will go into the bureau's general transportation revenue account.

"Increasing the price of parking has always been challenging," Commissioner Steve Novick said Wednesday during a public hearing. "But it's part of our job."

About $1 million of the projected revenue will go into the bureau's fledgling street-paving program, Rivera said. Another $1 million will go toward helping the bureau meet the credit card industry's protection standards. Portland is not fully meeting those standards and could face fines if bureaus don't take action, which auditors determined last year posed a concern to several bureaus.

Bob Buchanan, general manager of downtown's Pioneer Place shopping center, testified in support of the pay increase. Buchanan spoke on behalf of the Portland Business Alliance, indicating the parking increase had the backing of the powerful chamber of commerce.

A SEIU Local 49 representative expressed concern about the "disproportionate impact" the increase will have on low wage workers downtown, many of which have been pushed farther away from downtown yet still drive into town.

Officials say the price increase makes sense for several reasons. The city's six SmartPark garages have 4,000 public spaces, yet street parking is cheaper. Smart Park spaces cost $1.60 an hour the first two hours, then increase to $1.80 for the third hour, and $2 in the fourth hour.

If approved, hourly parking downtown will cost the same regardless of where you park.

Portland will also increase the number of 90-minute and two-hour parking zones after analyses showed hour long spaces were unnecessary. City studies showed the average downtown parker stayed for 90 minutes, and 18 percent of users stayed longer than the limit.

The change wouldn't apply to spaces in the Lloyd District or Central Eastside, or to meters planned in Northwest Portland.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@cityhallwatch