Berkeley motorists will soon pay to park later in the evening and on Sundays for the first time, after the City Council voted 8-1 this month to expand metered hours, hike ticket fines, and install meters on new stretches of roadway — all to help close a nearly $30 million citywide budget deficit.

The changes, approved Tuesday and taking effect sometime after July 1, mark the second round of Berkeley parking increases in four months. They project to raise about $5 million more per year and reflect a broader municipal calculation that drivers who want to use public street space will increasingly have to pay the city's costs for providing it — a logic that produced the council's near-unanimous vote but also its sharpest dissent.

Berkeley's on-street meters currently run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, leaving Sunday and evening parking free across most of the city. The council's vote changes both: meters will now run until 8 p.m., and Sunday enforcement — once unheard of in Berkeley — will begin with the new fiscal year.

The city won't ticket right away. Senior Planner Elliott Schwimmer told the council that Berkeley will first install new signage, then run a 30-day "pilot period" of warning citations before fines kick in — the same approach the city used last year when implementing the state's "daylighting" law banning parking near crosswalks.

The parking math

Schwimmer framed the extended hours not just as a revenue play but as a traffic management tool. "With meters off on evenings and Sundays, we lose both revenue and the ability to manage turnover," he told council members Tuesday. "Drivers circle longer, double parking increases and blocks fill up in ways that lock out short-term customers and delivery vehicles."

The city projects the extended hours and Sunday enforcement will net the parking fund about $1.5 million annually. Higher fines and permit fees are expected to send an additional $3.5 million per year to the General Fund, for a total of roughly $5 million in new revenue — still short of the $5.4 million deficit the parking budget alone is projected to run by 2031.

Higher fines, new meters, a fee for paying by card

Expired meter tickets jump from $43 to $64 — matching Oakland's rate. Street sweeping violations rise from $49 to $73, a dollar more than Oakland but, Schwimmer noted, "still meaningfully below San Francisco."

New meters are coming to portions of Fifth Street near the Fourth Street shopping district, along Hopkins and California streets, and on several blocks near Berkeley Bowl West.

Starting sometime after July 1, motorists paying by credit card will also absorb transaction fees the city currently swallows — charges that add up to just over $450,000 a year city-wide. And within three to five years, Berkeley plans to convert entirely to cashless pay stations that accept Clipper cards alongside credit and debit.

This follows a round of rate hikes Berkeley implemented March 1, when it raised hourly rates in high-demand neighborhoods, at the Telegraph-Channing parking garage, and around Memorial Stadium on Cal game days.

"Regressive in nature"

The near-consensus on the dais masked real discomfort. Councilmember Ben Bartlett, representing South Berkeley, cast the lone "no" vote and proposed limiting the changes to a two-year pilot with ongoing analysis. "Relying on parking enforcement to raise money is regressive in nature, it just is," Bartlett said. "Residents pay incredible rents and incredibly high property taxes, and we want them to pay more taxes."

Councilmember Brent Blackaby moved to strip Sunday enforcement from the package entirely, but was voted down 6-2, with only Bartlett joining him and Councilmember Igor Tregub abstaining.

Other council members argued that the city bears road and garage maintenance costs regardless of whether it collects fees, and that heavy street parking use by some residents justifies the cost shift. "In my district we hear stories of people owning multiple, multiple cars, like seven vehicles that they are parking on the public right of way," said Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani, who represents Northwest Berkeley. "If people want to choose to do that, you know, that is their choice, but we need to have that be reflected in our costs."

The full package passed 8-1, with Bartlett the sole dissent. Residential Parking Permit prices — currently $85 per car per address for up to three vehicles — will rise on a tiered scale beginning May 1, 2027: $100 for the first car, $125 for the second, $150 for the third.