Royal Oak Offering Free Parking In June

ROYAL OAK, MI — Royal Oak is about to bring a lot more parking online.

A 581-space parking garage is scheduled to open by June 1st. To celebrate the grand opening of the new parking garage, the Downtown Development Authority approved a resolution at its recent board meeting on May 15th to fund free parking in all parking structures every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in the month of June, beginning June 6th. Combined with the free parking on Sundays, visitors to downtown Royal Oak will be able to park in any structure for free four days per week, every week, in the month of June.

“Starting in June, we will have more parking, free parking, and a free pedicab service that will take pedestrians from the garages to their favorite spots in downtown for free,” said Downtown Manager Sean Kammer. “The City and DDA have invested a significant amount into parking infrastructure. Clearly, it’s a priority.”

Next to the Royal Oak Public Library at 11 Mile Road and Williams Street, the new parking garage expands the parking options downtown by 581 additional spaces. It will be accessible from 11 Mile Road and eventually a second entrance will open that is accessible from Second Street. The new garage is expected to be open by June 1st.

Beginning June 6th, parking in any parking structure will be free all day every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during the month of June. This includes all four parking structures in the downtown: North Lafayette, South Lafayette, Center Street and the new 11 Mile garage. The goal is to introduce people to parking in the garages who would otherwise limit themselves to looking for surface lot or on-street parking spots only.

“This is one way that we are trying to encourage people to choose to park in the structures before looking for a spot on the street. It will help calm congestion and give people a free and safe option to park their cars when they visit downtown,” said DDA Chair Jay Dunstan.

However free parking comes at a price. Since many parts of the parking system were built on borrowed money from bonds, relieving users of the charge to park is not as simple as it seems.

“The city isn’t able to give away free parking because of the bond restrictions on the parking system,” said City Manager Donald Johnson. “If there is free parking, the parking system has to be paid by someone. The DDA has chosen to compensate the parking system for the lost revenue from the free parking days in June.”

Some downtown business owners were also excited to see the DDA approve the resolution to promote free parking. Johnny Prepolec, owner of Mr. B’s Gastropub, and its downstairs speakeasy known as Johnny’s, was pleased to see the results of the DDA board meeting.

“If you invest millions of dollars into a major asset, such as a parking structure, you need to spend at least a fraction of that to advertise it,” said Prepolec. “This was a good move. We need to let people in the area know that there’s more than enough parking in Royal Oak and that it’s easy to use.”

Drivers will be able to park in all parking structures for free on the following dates:

• June 6, 7, 8, and 9
• June 13, 14, 15, and 16
• June 20, 21, 22, and 23
• June 27, 28, 29, and 30

The free parking dates coincide with the Royal Oak Chamber’s Art of Fire: Clay, Glass and Metal art fair on June 8th and 9thand the new Rock ‘N’ Rides festival on June 20th through the 23rd.

The Royal Oak Downtown Development Authority has also introduced a free pedicab service. Read about that here.