BIRMINGHAM, MI, April 11, 2018 – There’s another opportunity to get free parking in Birmingham. The City announced it is adding free parking on Saturday’s in all five city parking structures, effective immediately.

“We want to make parking as convenient and accessible as possible,” said Birmingham Assistant City Manager Tiffany Gunter, who leads the city’s parking study and implementation activities. “We felt that adding free parking on Saturday’s in city parking structures was a natural complement to the free parking in city structures that has been a mainstay on Sunday’s,” Gunter added. “We also believe that having free parking on both weekend days, effective immediately, will help the public and the city’s merchants in light of the ongoing reconstruction of Old Woodward, expected to take four months to complete.”

The free parking weekends is the latest salvo by the City to enhance parking options for residents, workers and visitors to Birmingham. Earlier this month, the City unveiled another change in its parking structures. Monthly permit holders are no longer permitted to park on the first floors’ of City parking structures. By having the monthly permit holders Go UP!, as the initiative is known as,  more than 250 short-term spaces can be freed up for short-term parkers-those staying for three hours or less. The change was made, in conjunction with the Old Woodward Reconstruction Project and to help traffic flow efficiency as well as reduce full-capacity occurrences.

In addition to the free weekend parking in city structures now available, the City also created four, two hour free valet parking stations strategically located near the Old Woodward construction zone. The valet service had a dramatic jump in usage from the first week of the Old Woodward project to the second, said Ingrid Tighe, Executive Director of the Birmingham Shopping District (BSD). “We went from a little more than 100 uses to nearly 400 week over week,” said Tighe. “We encourage the public to use the stations, located at North Old Woodward near Willits, South Old Woodward near Brown, Henrietta near Maple and Hamilton near Ferndale, while the Old Woodward reconstruction is in progress.”

And, the City will continue to provide free rooftop valet assistance at most of the City structures, allowing parkers to leave their vehicle with valet while they work, shop or visit downtown Birmingham. The City is also exploring other parking possibilities, some of which are in their final stages of vetting and will soon be made public.  

More information on parking options in the City can be found on the city website at www.bhamgov.org/parking/. 

City of Birmingham – A Walkable Community. Visit the city’s web site at www.bhamgov.org.