Downtown State College will once again offer free parking options during the holiday season, starting before Thanksgiving and continuing until after New Year’s Day.
State College Borough Council on Monday approved the Downtown State College Improvement District’s request for the annual holiday parking program, which will include an extended grace period for nearly a month followed by two weeks of unlimited free parking.
From Nov. 25 to Dec. 22, the grace period for free parking in garages will increase from 30 minutes to two hours and courtesy cards will be issued to forgive up to three meter violations at street meters and municipal surface lots. Street meter and lot parking will be free after 5 p.m. daily during that period.
At least one, and possibly two, exceptions will be in place, however. For the weekend of Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, established special event rates of $2.25 per hour for garage parking and meter enforcement will be in effect because of Penn State football’s regular season finale against Maryland on Dec. 30 at Beaver Stadium. That will also be the case if Penn State hosts a College Football Playoff game the weekend of Dec. 20-22.
Beginning Dec. 23 (Dec. 21 if Penn State does not host a playoff game) and continuing to Jan. 4, garage, meter and lot parking will be free at all times.
In 2023, the program had an impact on the borough’s parking budget of about $50,000, Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said in response to a question about revenue cost from Councilman John Hayes.
“Generally it’s in that range,” Fountaine said. “It might be a little more in other years.”
Lee Anne Jeffries, Downtown State College Improvement District executive director, said that it’s difficult to track revenue increases correlating with the free parking, but that the holiday parking program is very popular with both businesses and community members.
“We really don’t have strong hard data in terms of the increase in revenue,” Jeffries said. “Obviously, this is the holiday season for our downtown merchants, so business picks up in general as well. But I can tell you it is a program that our businesses and the community continue to tell me year after year how important it is. Many people in the community wait until the parking is free before they come downtown to shop for the holidays.
She added that when free parking was offered for two weeks in the summer to help boost businesses amid the road closures associated with Calder Way construction, DSCID heard from many residents who said they went downtown because parking was free.
“It really is a beloved program that I think the community in general and our business community would be disappointed if it did not continue,” Jeffries said.
The holiday parking program has been offered for decades, Council President Evan Myers said, and it has been “very positive all the way around.”
“I think it offers [businesses] some semblance of relief after the very long and arduous last several months that they’ve had to put up with with construction on Calder Way and Allen Street and all the [road] closures. It’s put some businesses, quite frankly, behind the eight ball. I think this is something that can only help.”
