Politics
Proposed Sale of Parking Meters Stalls Amid Widespread Opposition
A Chicago parking meter is pictured in a file photo. (400tmax / iStock)
A planned vote by the Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee to approve the sale of Chicago’s parking meters to a New York-based investment firm was called off Monday, leaving the fate of the city’s 36,000 parking meters — and the tens of millions of dollars in revenue they generate — in limbo.
Finance Committee Chair Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) said she was calling off the vote amid “ongoing discussions” with Stonepeak Partners about new information. Dowell told the committee that she had been told a July 24 deadline to approve the sale, as the original lease agreement requires, would be pushed back.
A representative of Stonepeak declined to comment to WTTW News on the called-off vote and the status of the sale.
Stonepeak has asked the City Council to approve the $2.53 billion sale of the meters from Chicago Parking Meters LLC. In 2008, the firm leased the city’s meters for 75 years in return for $1.15 billion — a much-loathed deal crafted by former Mayor Richard M. Daley and rubber-stamped by the City Council that continues to roil Chicago politics nearly two decades later.
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced in January that Chicago would not buy back the city’s meters, telling reporters “the final purchase price was far too high.” In a memo sent to alderpeople in advance of Monday’s City Council committee hearing, Johnson said the city bid $3.2 billion for the meters — by far the highest offer — before reversing course.
“The city was advised that pledging motor vehicle parking fine receipts as well as off-street parking/garage tax receipts, in addition to all parking meter revenue, would likely be necessary to secure an acceptable interest rate on the borrowing,” according to the memo, which was first reported by Crain’s Chicago Business. “Such supplemental revenue sources would serve as a backup repayment source in the event that parking meter system revenues were insufficient, thus putting the city’s current operating funds at risk in the transaction.”
Several progressive members of the City Council said they would not allow the sale of the city’s meters to Stonepeak because it owns Omni Air International, which had a contract with the Trump administration to carry out deportations. Mother Jones magazine reported in March that passengers were shackled on those flights, some of which lasted two days, and not allowed to use the bathroom.
Critics of Johnson blasted his handling of the parking meter sale, and accused him of withholding crucial information from the City Council that members could have used to force changes to the deal, which has become shorthand at Chicago City Hall for disastrous policy proposals.
Shortly before Dowell called off the vote on the sale, Budget Committee Chair Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward) called for the sale to be rejected in a column in the Chicago Tribune.
Chicago should instead form a “taxpayer-backed Chicago Public Infrastructure Trust” to regain control of the meters, Ervin wrote.
A similar effort by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, which was designed to help private firms invest in the city, failed to generate any notable results.
Chicago has more than $10.5 billion in outstanding debt backed by the city’s property tax and sales tax receipts and owes an additional $36.4 billion to its four pension funds, limiting its ability to borrow additional money.
Johnson has called the 2008 parking meter deal the worst ever approved by a local government in United States history.
There are 57 years left on the parking meter lease, which generated $1.97 billion in revenue for the firm between 2009 and 2024, approximately $500 million more than it paid the city nearly 18 years ago.
The deal also requires the city make “true-up” payments to Chicago Parking Meters to compensate the firm for lost revenue when meters are removed, temporarily taken out of commission with the city’s permission or used by motorists with disabled parking permits.
That cost the city $7.6 million in 2024, records show.
In 2025, the City Council agreed to pay Chicago Parking Meters a total of $25.2 million to compensate the firm for taking parking spaces out of service during the stay-at-home orders issued by city and state officials to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
