Cambridge may more than double fee for parking sticker

By Brock Parker, Globe Correspondent

The cost of a residential parking sticker in Cambridge could more than double in January and increase again in two years under a proposal being considered by the city.

City Manager Robert Healy said the proposal would increase the parking sticker from the current $8 fee to $20 a year effective January 1 and increase to $25 on Jan. 1, 2013.

Healy told the City Council’s Transportation, Traffic and Parking Committee Tuesday that the increase could generate an additional $480,000 in revenue that could be used for initiatives to reduce vehicle trips in the city.

But the City Council would need to approve the rate hikes by September 30th in order for the new $20 fee to take affect by January 1, Healy said. The manager said he’s likely to submit the proposal to the City Council for consideration on August 2.

Healy said the fee for the residential parking sticker has been $8 for 18 years.

A city climate committee will be making recommendations about how the revenue from the fee hike could be used to reduce vehicle trips and the resulting pollution, Healy said.

City Councilor Craig Kelley said he supports the proposal to increase the parking fee, but he’s not convinced that the revenue from the increase should be dedicated to the recommendations of the climate committee.

Councilor Sam Seidel said he supports the principal of raising the fee, but said it “may not be a tremendously popular vote” and he said the suggestion of raising the fee to $20 and then $25 sounds “arbitrary” without an exact idea about how to use the revenue.