Amarillo City Council Votes Unanimously : Free Parking Returns to Downtown Amarillo

Back in 2019, the Amarillo City Council voted to put paid parking in downtown Amarillo.

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Many Amarillo citizens were up in arms over the decision because no one wanted to have to pay to park.

"Just go to a big city and you have to pay to park"

That argument is valid, but this is Amarillo, we are a big little city and most of the citizens were completely against the paid street parking in downtown Amarillo.

A lot of the people who worked downtown were having to add something new to their budget, paying to park to go to work.  If you had a meeting downtown, you had to pay to park.  If you wanted to visit a restaurant or store downtown, you had to pay to park.  If you chose not to pay to park and use a parking lot that was free, then you had to hike to your destination.  If you parked and didn't pay, then you ran the risk of being ticketed.

The Park Mobile sites went up and parking spaces were marked with numbers.   Users had to download the Park Mobile app to pay.  It costs $1 per hour to park.  The limit to park in a space was 3 hours.

On Tuesday, October 24th, the Amarillo City Council voted unanimously to abolish the paid parking in downtown Amarillo.

If you have to visit a business downtown and the street is marked for paid parking, you will no longer have to worry about pulling out the app, typing in the parking space number, and then clicking to pay for your hour even though you may just need 10 minutes for your errand.

This means that you can delete the Park Mobile app from your phone and rejoice.  You no longer have to pay to park in the streets of Amarillo.  In place of the park mobile signs, you will soon see signs that limit the amount of time you can park in those spaces.

Even though the City Council voted to abolish paid street parking in Amarillo.  The parking garage will still cost you to park.

Before you drive downtown to park and not pay, this still needs to be approved in a second meeting.  This should occur during the next City Council meeting on November 14th.