The City of Evanston generates a substantial amount of revenue through metered parking. According to Cynthia Vargas, the city’s communications and engagement manager, Evanston collected about $4.2 million in 2022, $4.9 million in 2023 and $5 million in 2024 from paid parking.
Approximately 75% of the revenue comes through the ParkEvanston app, which is run by Passport Labs, Inc., with the other 25% arriving through payments at physical meters.
The city did not respond to questions from the RoundTable about how much revenue Passport Labs makes off the ParkEvanston app.
The requests
In late October 2024, the executive directors of four Evanston business associations — Downtown Evanston, Central Street, the Main-Dempster Mile and the Evanston Chamber of Commerce — sent a jointly signed letter to City Manager Luke Stowe asking for his support for three parking-related proposals intended to “stimulate economic activity within our business districts and build political goodwill across the Evanston community.”
The business leaders said the proposals would have a positive financial impact on the city and its parking revenue, while also benefitting local restaurants and retail businesses.
”While some Evanston businesses have an issue with metered parking, we need it to create parking space turnover,” said Andy Vick, Downtown Evanston executive director. “Otherwise, people could park in front of businesses and potentially leave their cars all day.”
The groups’ first request was to continue the holiday season offer of two hours of free parking first piloted in 2023 through the ParkEvanston app. This time around, though, they also asked the city to allow people to redeem free parking in 15-minute increments. Under the 2023 program, the offer only allowed a blanket two hours of free parking per day, so the city could have been giving some people two hours of free parking for what was actually a 15-minute stay.
“By only offering parkers free parking in two-hour increments, the city is giving away more money than they need to,” Vick said.
The second request was to provide free parking all day throughout the city on Small Business Saturday (Nov. 30, 2024). The business leaders suggested that free parking on this date would help attract shoppers and encourage retail sales on this important start to the 2024 holiday shopping season.
And lastly, they asked the city to eliminate paid parking on city meters after 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays throughout 2025. The rationale for this request was to “encourage more dinner business for Evanston restaurants, without adversely impacting the understandable need for parking turnover during the normal 9-5 business day.”
The city’s response
The city implemented the holiday parking offer once again, which was in effect from Nov. 28 to Dec. 31. The promotion was redeemed 31,749 times, generating $93,898 in savings for parkers, or, depending on your viewpoint, lost revenue for the city. The Holiday Parking offer can only be accessed through the Passport app.
Redeeming the offer works well for Evanston residents who use the app, but shoppers and diners from surrounding communities may not have it.
Regarding the request to restructure the free two-hour holiday season parking into smaller increments, Vargas replied in an email that “At the moment there are no plans to restructure the way the free parking is provided.”
Vick said city officials told him they denied that second request because Small Business Saturday already fell during the free holiday parking window, and that overlapping offers could have confused people.
Meanwhile, it appears the city might be partially addressing the third proposal for free parking after 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. On Jan. 31, Mayor Daniel Biss filed a referral, co-sponsored by Council Members Jonathan Nieuwsma and Tom Suffredin, to create a pilot program offering free parking on the first Saturday of each month after 6 p.m.
“We want to optimize our parking/economic/community-building policy, and this pilot will provide data to inform future decision-making,” Biss wrote on the city’s referral tracker.
He acknowledged a “negative but modest” impact on city revenue, noting that “my understanding is that it’s a 5-figure number.”
Any change in parking regulations will need to be approved by the City Council.
The business leaders also encouraged the city to provide additional free parking offers on special occasions throughout the year, but, according to Vargas, the city has no plans to implement additional free parking this year beyond what’s already in the works.
“Parking in Evanston is a hassle and makes it more difficult for people from outside the city to dine and shop in Evanston, particularly downtown,” said Amy Morton, owner of La Tour Brasserie and The Barn Steakhouse.
Katherine Gotsick, executive director of the Main-Dempster Mile, added that “there is no such thing as a perfect parking solution, but I think if the city provided one hour of free parking per day for Evanston residents, throughout the year, it would significantly benefit Evanston retailers and restaurants.”
According to the city’s Economic Indicator Dashboard, the retail vacancy rate in downtown Evanston stood at 9.8% in December 2024.
