City of Füssen is hoping for higher income from the parking spaces

Füssen - In view of empty coffers, the city of Füssen wants to increase the profit on its parking spaces.

Among other things, higher parking fees are up for debate.

Despite the restrictions caused by the corona pandemic, the city parking lots generated over one million euros in revenue last year. In view of empty coffers and a high level of new debt, the city administration and local politics want to increase the profit from parking spaces in the future. The designation of additional chargeable parking spaces and higher parking fees are also up for debate, as is the termination of the cooperation with the service provider APCOA. The city council took a first step shortly before the summer break.

In its last meeting before the summer break at the end of July, the committee decided with a large majority to increase the parking fees at Vilser and Hopfensee camping site. Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, September 1st, the daily flat rate there will cost eight instead of four euros. The administration hopes that this will generate additional income of 30,000 to 40,000 euros for the city's treasury. This means that both parking spaces are still a bit cheaper than the parking lot on Uferstrasse, where the daily flat rate is nine euros.

With the latest decision, the city parliament continued the path taken in 2019 of gradually increasing municipal parking fees - with the exception of the city center - and making additional parking spaces subject to charges.

For example, a general increase in fees on January 1, 2020 was followed by the introduction of parking fees for the parking lot in Schwedenweg at the beginning of this year.

The city council had already decided to introduce parking fees for the Gipsbruchweiher and Saloberstrasse / Alatsee car parks, among others.

Lots of open questions

If the city administration has its way, further steps should follow. Among other things, the town hall is thinking about charging parking fees for the parking lot at the Festspielhaus in the future. Parking in the planned new parking lot west of Hopfen will therefore cost money in the future, according to the session documents for the latest session of the local parliament.

Accordingly, parking fees for campers and mobile homes should also be considered.

“In general, but also because of the increasing demand, it should be discussed whether and how, if necessary, parking mobile homes or parking so-called camping buses should be dealt with,” reads there.

It must also be discussed whether parking on the fairground in Kemptener Straße should cost money in the future.

This should happen in one of the upcoming meetings of the city council.

End cooperation with APCOA

In addition to higher fees and the designation of additional chargeable parking spaces, the administration also wants to end its cooperation with the service provider APCOA. In 1999 he took over the operation and maintenance of the three car parks managed by the municipal utilities: Morisse, Achmühle and the Sparkasse underground car park. For this, the company will share in the turnover of the parking areas. Neither Mayor Maximilian Eichstetter (CSU) nor Chief Office Officer Peter Hartl wanted to comment on how high this amount is. According to information from our newspaper, however, it should be a high six-figure amount per year. Spicy: these three parking spaces alone burden the Stadtwerke's balance sheet with a deficit of around four million euros (as of 2020).

The situation is to change from 2027. “After the contractual relationship with APCOA expires, the city wants to take over the management itself again - and thus save a lot of money,” Hartl announced to the district

messenger

.

"When the third-party management of these three parking spaces ends, several hundred thousand euros can be earned again."

Traffic is controlled

The upcoming decisions about future parking fees are not just about the financial aspect. "The city not only wants to generate income with parking space management, but above all to achieve traffic and parking space control," explains the head of the office. In addition to the digital parking management system that is

currently being

set up (the

Kreisbote

reported), this also includes the amount of the fees. “Because this can also be used to consciously control parking behavior,” says Hartl.

In fact, when the city council decided to increase the parking fees for the parking spaces in Vilser and camping in Hopfen, it made a conscious decision in favor of a lower daily flat rate than in Uferstraße. The aim is to make the parking options on the outskirts more attractive for drivers than those in the center of the village. The council members hope this will relieve traffic in the district.