Bend hotels pay city to hold premium parking

Under city code, businesses in downtown Bend can pay the city $10 a day to reserve parking for an unlimited time.

And that has had some downtown parking spot-hunters wondering what’s up.

Finding parking in downtown Bend can indeed be a headache.

“Oftentimes, you have to go around (the block) a few times to find a parking place,” Bend resident Chuck Shattuck said Tuesday.

“It’s hard to find parking,” said Kathy Gibson, who parked by Drake Park to avoid getting a parking ticket. “We’re shopping and eating, and that’s hard to do with the limited parking time.”

In the midst of the parking dilemma, there is cone after cone blocking off 18 parking spots. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Double Tree requested 16 spots and the Oxford Hotel two.

“Both hotels are totally in compliance,” said Carolyn Eagan with the city of Bend.

Businesses are allowed to request reserved parking for improvement work, special events or extra-large vehicles that would not fit into the parking garage.

“We allow them to contact Diamond Parking, pay $10 and close off the spot so they can use it for the day,” Eagan said.

And there is no limit on how long businesses can reserve spots for.

“Someone could say that maybe our pricing is a little outdated, the fact that we charge $10,” Eagan said.