Why West Sacramento is increasing parking prices ahead of A’s move to Sutter Health Park
Parking will become more expensive in West Sacramento in 2025 ahead of the Athletics’ move to Sutter Health Park.
Prices will increase after the new year to “accommodate demand,” more closely aligning with parking prices in downtown Sacramento during Kings games.
“We want to make it a priority to preserve as much street parking for local retailers, like restaurants, that are still open and will be needing the parking for their own customers when the A’s are playing at Sutter Health Park,” said Aaron Laurel, West Sacramento’s city manager.
Parking meters in West Sacramento’s Bridge District will increase by 25 cents per hour, 50 cents per hour and 75 cents per hour in Tiers 1 through 3, respectively. The base parking meter rate will jump from $1.75 to $2.00 per hour, according to West Sacramento parking manager Larry Lee.
The tiered parking is based on time, Lee wrote in an e-mail, with rates increasing incrementally the longer a vehicle is parked at a meter.
The increased prices will encourage people going to games at events at Sutter Health Park to park in the right places to avoid hindering business in the area that rely on short-term traffic.
The restructured pricing will allow for more turnover street parking for short-term visitors, rather than having cars parked on the street that won’t move for three or four hours at a time, Laurel said.
“So the pricing structure allows us to do dynamic pricing so we can raise rates at the back end,” Laurel said. “So if you’re there for a short period of time, you’re going to get the normal rate, but if you plan to park there for multiple hours, then you’ll be paying a rate that’s definitely higher than what you pay in the surface parking lot of the stadium. We want people to use the surface lots if they’re going to park for the ball games.”
Lee noted parking will be very limited in the area, particularly when capacity of crowds of 14,000 attend games at Sutter Health Park. Lee said the city will provide prepaid parking reservations for A’s and River Cats games on the city’s website.
This story was originally published December 20, 2024 at 11:06 AM.
