Falcon Heights to charge $25 for street parking during the State Fair

No more free parking in Falcon Heights for the Minnesota State Fair, fairgoers.

The city across the street from the Great Minnesota Get-Together said it will cost $25 to park on the streets there before heading off to get your seed art fix.

Soaring State Fair attendance, the cost of extra staffing and cleanup, and the fact that the city doesn’t get any State Fair revenue despite serving as the host were all cited by the City Council on Wednesday night before it voted unanimously in support of the plan.

“It’s not been an easy decision for me,” said Council Member Melanie Leehy, who said she was initially opposed to the plan.

A few dozen critics of paid parking spoke before the vote, including local resident Mary Faust, who said the city should stay welcoming and think about what it can give to help fairgoers, not what it can take.

“You’re being greedy,” she told the council.

Resident Romas Kazlauskas agreed, saying it’s unfriendly to charge people to park.

“I haven’t heard that there’s any benefit to the residents,” he said.

Others complained that the extra burden of paying to park might deter some families from attending the fair. Some said it flies in the face of history: Falcon Heights has long prided itself on being the fair’s host city, and it has never charged for street parking before.

The city convened a State Fair task force of 10 volunteers in 2023 to look at quality-of-life issues for local residents during the fair. Stories of fairgoers peeing in yards or even ringing the doorbells of locals to ask if they could use the bathroom had piled up. The task force came up with the parking fee plan last year, then presented it at a public hearing in March.

Some 80 people spoke during the hearing, including supporters like Bob Haight, who said the fee is overdue. But others like Sue Majerus said it’s not fair to residents. If she invites people to her house during the fair, will they have to pay to park on her street?

“I should be able to do what I want at my house,” she told the council on Tuesday night.

The new rule means parking in Falcon Heights will cost $25 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. during the 12 days of the fair, from Aug. 21 to Sept. 1 this year. The paid parking areas are roughly bounded by Snelling and Hamline avenues and Roselawn and Iowa avenues.

The fee is paid online through a website or app or an automated pay-by-phone line.

Locals won’t have to pay to park on their own street, the city said, since the city will mail a free parking pass in July to property owners who live on the streets designated for the new parking rules. That’s about 600 properties, according to the city.

A homeowner can get a second pass by request, and up to two more passes will be given to property owners who can demonstrate a need.

The passes will not be available for purchase from the city, and locals cannot sell them or rent them out. If someone parks in the city without paying, it’s a $100 ticket.

The city expects to make about $100,000 to $200,000 from the paid parking. That would be enough to make up for the approximately $75,000 that it costs the city each year to host the fair, Council Member Eric Meyer said.

He said the fee might discourage drivers from bargain hunting, circling Falcon Heights looking for a free spot, now that the city will charge the same as the fair charges for parking.

“I commend the task force for putting together a program to recoup costs for being the host city to the State Fair,” Council Member Paula Mielke said.

That still wasn’t enough to convince residents like Laurie Frattallone.

“You have not demonstrated that we have a public safety problem,” she told the council, “nor shown how this will fix it.”

She wondered about the math as well: The city estimates that the paid parking area will cover about 1,000 free parking spaces, but if it hands out 600 or more passes to residents, it will have far fewer paid spots.