Parking meters on Fulton Street in Downtown Fresno, near The Layover bar, where event surge pricing reached $30 during a Fresno Grizzlies game April 18. Photos by Frank Lopez

A local pub cancelled its karaoke night this month after event parking prices at nearby meters hit $30 — and now business owners, the city and the Downtown Fresno Partnership are working toward a fix, though details are scarce.

The Layover, a bar on Fulton Street, called off its April 18 karaoke night after learning that a concert by Banda Ms at Chukchansi Park that evening had triggered surge pricing at downtown meters.

This comes as the city is still settling into a new era of parking management. In February, the city took over day-to-day operations of its downtown parking facilities — lots, garages and metered spaces — after a five-year, $13 million contract with private operator ACE Parking expired.

The city and the Downtown Fresno Partnership say they are developing a pilot program to retroactively refund business customers who pay event-rate prices — but the program is still taking shape.

 

Businesses speak out

Adam Francher, manager at The Layover, said he had never seen meter prices reach $30 before. He took over ownership of the bar in April and said he hadn’t anticipated that special-event surge pricing would be a factor for their events.

He said customers have told him they would rather patronize similar businesses outside downtown than pay steep parking fees.

“When you have to pay a lot of money for parking during events, even if you’re not attending them, then it really discourages people from wanting to come down there and discourages businesses from wanting to be down there,” Francher said.

 

Other downtown businesses voiced similar frustrations in a social media post from The Layover. BB’s Gelateria wrote: “It’s hard, with construction and parking issues, most of us downtown are struggling. We’ve also seen our customers avoid the area if there is an event and parking goes through the roof. As a business owner I pay $70 a month to park next to my business.”

 

Upfront costs a concern

Francher said he has spoken with nearby businesses and the Downtown Fresno Partnership to organize a meeting with Fresno City Council. He wants to explore whether business owners could receive a code to give customers that would allow them to pay the standard, non-event parking rate.

He also raised concerns about any reimbursement model that requires customers to pay the higher rate upfront.

“That will give them less money to spend while they’re at their venue,” Francher said. “Nowadays money is tight for everybody — going out is a luxury for most people, and if you have to dish out another $20 or $30 and wait who knows how many days to get reimbursed, I feel that’s going to deter a lot of people also.”

The Layover is also weighing whether to hold a Cinco de Mayo event May 2, but Francher said the bar is concerned the same pricing conflicts could arise during Tequila Fest 2026, headlined by Nelly.

 

In the zone

The City of Fresno has more than 2,000 metered parking spaces downtown and 11 off-street parking facilities with nearly 4,200 spaces. But not all of those operate the same way during events.

Jennifer Clark, director of planning and development with the city, said downtown has three designated event parking zones: the Chukchansi Park zone, the Fresno Convention Center zone and the North Fulton zone. Each is designed to manage parking during large-scale events, and each operates under its own arrangement.

The Convention Center zone is coordinated through weekly meetings between the city’s parking division and the venue, with meter rates typically aligned to match the center’s surface lot charges, said Melissa Almaguer, the city’s parking manager.

 

The Chukchansi Park zone operates differently. The parking garages there — including The Spiral and Congo garages — are managed by the Fresno Grizzlies under a contractual agreement with the city. The venue operator sets event rates but cannot exceed the city’s master fee schedule. Clark said the maximum allowed rate is $50, though she said she has never seen it go above $30.

“Each event is carefully evaluated based on projected attendance, potential overlaps with other events, and operational needs,” Clark said. “Larger events often require additional resources — security, janitorial services, in some cases traffic control — and these added costs are reflected in the event parking rate.”

 

Alerting the public

The city and parking division have worked with Chukchansi Park and the Convention Center on “Know Before You Go” informational flyers distributed to event ticketholders, Almaguer said. Ticket buyers also receive an email before the event with parking locations and payment options. Flyers are also posted throughout the downtown area alerting visitors to check rates at meters before paying.

Clark acknowledged the tension at the heart of the issue.

“Downtown Fresno is becoming more vibrant,” she said, “and there will be more of a rub in the short term between the long-term need for parking and making sure we can serve both of those customers at the same time.”

 

Pilot program in the works

Through collaboration with the Downtown Fresno Partnership, the city has compiled a list of downtown businesses concerned about event pricing and is developing a pilot program to address it.

Under the concept, people coming downtown during an event but not attending it could scan a QR code to retroactively receive a refund on the difference between the event rate and the standard rate. Specifics of how the program would work — including how refunds would be processed and when it might launch — have not been finalized.

 

Partnership weighs in

Elliot Balch, president and CEO of the Downtown Fresno Partnership, confirmed the organization met with city parking management about two weeks ago to discuss event pricing.

 

“There is a desire in the city, and on our part, to help figure out ways that prices that business customers are paying — who are staying a shorter time and not going to those special events — could be more market-driven and more affordable,” Balch said.

Balch said the goal is to encourage eventgoers to use parking garages and stay off the street, while ensuring that nearby businesses can offer their customers reasonably priced meter parking. He said businesses have long felt that surge pricing effectively blocked their customers from the most convenient street parking.

 

Meeting ahead

He said the DFP will work with business owners to hold a meeting with the city to discuss how pricing for business customers will work during events, adding that the city is “very interested in solving that problem.”

Francher said the issue needs to be resolved if downtown is going to grow.

“It’s an issue that definitely needs to be figured out,” he said, “especially if the city wants to bring more businesses and people to spend their money downtown.”