$24 a Day Called ‘Overkill’ : Airport Parking Fee at 4-Story Structure Cut

Conceding that $24 a day was “overkill” and had driven motorists away, the Burbank Airport Authority voted Monday to cut the controversial new fee for use of a four-story parking structure to a maximum of $18 a day. The authority also will advertise that parking in the structure may save money for short-term visitors.

Commissioner Leland C. Ayers complained to fellow members of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority at their meeting Monday that a steep increase in the parking fee imposed five weeks ago caused motorists to avoid the building, leaving it almost empty.

“Three layers of the building had no cars” on Monday morning, he said. “We have 400 spaces in a concrete structure that aren’t being used.”

The fee had been raised from a maximum of $8 a day in order to channel long-term parking into the neighboring lots at the airport or into satellite lots nearby and preserve the structure for short-term use. There had been complaints that those delivering or picking up passengers at the airport could not find parking spaces.

The fee for the parking structure was set at $1 an hour, with no daily limit, to discourage airline passengers from leaving their autos there overnight or for days at a time. Monday’s vote left the hourly fee intact.

The fee for parking in the lots that flank the building was set at $2 an hour up to a maximum of $8 a day. Satellite lots, which provide bus transportation to the airport, charge $4 daily.

Parking-fee collectors said that, since the new fee went into effect Sept. 27, they have had several bitter confrontations with angry patrons who said they did not notice the rate change. Some travelers returned after a three-day trip to find their parking fee was more than $70.

The new fee structure not only discouraged long-term use, it also drove away the short-term visitors it was meant to attract, said Thomas E. Greer, director of airport services.

“We overkilled,” he told the board, in part because the airport did not put enough emphasis, in its informational signs, on the $1-an-hour rate. “We scared them away.”

Greer said short-term visitors now routinely pay $2 for in-and-out stopovers in one of the adjoining lots, when it would have cost them only $1 to use the structure. For any period shorter than eight hours, the parking structure is less expensive than the parking lots, he noted.

The rate change will go into effect as soon as new signs can be painted.