Roswell approves 7-month paid parking pilot program on new downtown deck
Roswell's City Council has voted 4-2 to approve a seven-month paid parking pilot program from May until Dec. 31, 2026.
Last year, the city broke ground on a new parking deck that will add just under 400 parking spaces to downtown Roswell.
Now, months before that deck is expected to open, residents are learning they will have to pay to park there.
Imani Lusega McLendon is the general manager of Fellows Cafe on Historic Green Street. She's a short walk from the Green Street parking deck that's currently being built near Alpharetta and Green Streets.
"That's going to be the biggest deck in this area, so why would that not be free for others to come and stay and visit?" Lusega McLendon said.
The city had said the deck would be free for Roswell residents, but determining who is a resident and who isn't would be difficult.
"It's a very complicated undertaking to really try to understand and implement a quality program where residents could actually be identified and then park for free when they came to the deck," said Roswell Deputy City Administrator Jeff Leatherman.
Roswell resident Debbie Pernice is disappointed.
"Maybe it wasn't intended to be free, but that was the overall impression for sure, so it's very disheartening to find out now that we'll have to pay," Pernice said.
Under the pilot program, the city said the parking deck would be free between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and paid on nights and weekends.
Leatherman hopes the pilot program gives the city a sense of how many people use the deck.
"We want to understand in different models, whether it be a free or a paid model, what the utilization rate is and how we potentially recover some of our operating costs to operate the deck throughout the city," he said.
Other streets in downtown Roswell are also a part of the pilot program.
According to the City, on-street parking on Canton Street, Elizabeth Way, and East Alley will be paid each hour with no free parking at those spaces.
