Why are you still paying $2 an hour to park on Main Street in Uptown, the same rate as in 2017? The reason is the new parking garage on Forest Road. Sedona has already set maximum rates for paid parking in Uptown and moved a residential permit zone forward, and all of it waits on the day that garage opens. That opening date has slipped three times since work began.
What Uptown Parking Costs Right Now
Here is what parking looks like this week. The City of Sedona's Uptown parking page says the meters along Main Street, which is N. SR 89A, run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week. Parking there is free before 9 a.m. and after 6 p.m. The first 15 minutes are free. After that you pay $2 an hour for the first three hours, $4 for the fourth hour and $6 for the fifth, so a full five hours costs $16. Pay stations take cards and the pay-by-phone app, which adds a 10-cent fee. Accessible spaces in the metered zone require payment too.
Behind Main Street, the city's Uptown parking brochure lists Lot 5 as free all day. Lot 3 Sacajawea, Lot 4 Matterhorn, Lot 6 Wayside Chapel and Lot 7 Sinagua are free for up to three hours. Lot 7 serves Sinagua Plaza, home to Sedona Pizza Company, and Lot 4 sits by Apple Avenue near the Matterhorn Inn at 230 Apple Ave.
The meter rates are old. A staff report in the City Council's May 12, 2026 meeting packet says the SR 89A rates "have not changed since June 2017." The same report shows how people actually use the meters. From 2021 through 2025, purchases of one to three hours made up about 74% of meter revenue, and "usage drops significantly beginning with hour four." Total meter revenue was $439,829 in 2025, down from $527,394 in 2021.
The Garage Turns On Paid Parking Everywhere
The garage at 430 and 460 Forest Road adds spaces, but it also sets the date for every other change. The city's garage project page records Council direction that the garage be fully funded by user fees. On Aug. 25, the City Council unanimously set maximum rates for the Uptown meters, the garage and the Sacajawea Plaza surface lot. Sedona Red Rock News called this "the framework for a future in which all public parking in Uptown has a fee." The paper also reported that none of the Aug. 25 changes would take effect until the garage opens, and that city staff want to monitor Uptown for at least six months after that.
Here is how the approved maximums compare with what you pay now:
| Location | Today | Approved maximum | Peak season maximum |
|---|---|---|---|
| SR 89A meters | $2/hr for hours 1 to 3, up to 5 hours | $4/hr, 3-hour limit | $5/hr |
| City Lot 5 | Free all day | $2.50/hr | $3.50/hr |
| Uptown Parking Garage | Not open | $2.50/hr | $3.50/hr |
Under the Council action, peak season runs March through May and September through November. Fees apply from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and no parking is allowed from midnight to 5 a.m. At the maximum, three hours at a Main Street meter would cost $12, twice today's $6. The same three hours in the garage or Lot 5 would cost $7.50. That difference is deliberate. The May staff report says the plan keeps curbside parking short and expensive to free up spaces near shops, and pushes longer visits to the garage and Lot 5 for a "Park Once" experience.
The same report estimated what each paid location would earn "at current trends." The garage came in at $1.6 million to $1.7 million a year. Lot 5, which costs nothing to use today, came in at $811,000 a year, more than the $665,000 projected for the higher-priced Main Street meters. Under the plan, Uptown's all-day free lot becomes one of the largest sources of parking revenue.
The Opening Date Keeps Moving
All of this waits on a date nobody will commit to. Sedona Red Rock News reported in September that work began in May 2025 with a target of spring break 2026. The target then moved to June, and later to "December or January." The paper put the total project cost at about $28.25 million. In the same story, the paper reported that on Aug. 25 the Council approved a $3,741,285.50 contract with J. Banicki Construction to upgrade water mains and improve Forest Road sidewalks out to SR 89A. Work on the garage's serpentine facade was scheduled to wrap up that day.
The project's own site, uptownsedonagarage.com, now lists completion as "Early 2027." In an Oct. 31 story, Sedona Red Rock News quoted Deputy City Manager Andy Dickey:
"We do not have a changed timeline for opening the garage at this point."
The same story reported that four residents raised safety concerns about concrete testing reports at the garage during public comment. Interim Mayor Holli Ploog directed the interim city manager to look into the matter and report back. The Council also showed interest in a possible performance audit of the garage's construction, with the garage named as a leading candidate for a pilot review by an outside firm. Any of these steps could push the opening back further, and the free lots stay free until it happens.
The peak season schedule matters here too. A garage opening in December or January would open in the off-season, so the first rates charged would be the standard ones, not the $3.50 and $5 peak rates. That holds only if paid parking starts on opening day, and the city has not set that sequence.
The Three-Hour Lots Could Change Most
Lots 3 and 4 face the least predictable change. The May staff report says the city is reviewing its lease and parking-use agreements for the Sacajawea and Matterhorn lots. They "may ultimately be used for paid public parking, employee parking, or a combination of both." If they become paid public lots, staff proposed $3 an hour for the first three hours, $6 for the fourth and $9 for the fifth. Peak-season rates would be $4, $8 and $12. That proposal predates the August vote, which set a maximum for the Sacajawea Plaza lot, and the leases are still under review.
Employee parking adds another unknown. The employee plan stalled at the Aug. 25 meeting. Council rejected a proposed $25 annual fee to join a parking advisory group and sent staff back to revise the plan with the Parking Work Group. The proposal had identified about 205 potential employee spaces, and about 104 of them would come from public parking. Sedona Red Rock News reported that this equals about 16.5% of the city's current public inventory. If any of those spaces end up reserved for workers, the public share of the Sacajawea and Matterhorn lots shrinks along with them.
Van Deren, Price and Smith Get a Conditional Permit Zone
Council voted 5-1 on Aug. 25 to advance a residential permit program for three blocks: Van Deren, Price and Smith roads, between Schnebly Road on the north and Forest Road on the south. The garage sits at the southern edge of that zone. If the program takes effect, non-resident street parking in the zone would be banned, and visitors would have to use the garage or other lots. Any one of these six conditions could trigger it:
- Emergency access or public safety is compromised
- Parking spills over from the garage onto residential streets
- Resident feedback
- Parking use and occupancy data
- A recommendation from the Parking Work Group
- Direction from the City Council
Dickey said "it's our intention" to bring the program back to Council for final approval. The city has not yet decided whether permits will be physical placards or a digital list. Either way, Sedona police staff would enforce the zone with mobile license plate readers. The city said on Aug. 26 that the system is not connected to any law-enforcement network. It added that a policy the Council approved on Jan. 27, 2026 limits the technology to parking and bans surveillance use or sharing with outside agencies.
What You Get for the Fee
The garage includes more than parking spaces. The city lists public restrooms, EV charging, an information kiosk, a solar array, a police substation, bike parking and a Sedona Shuttle stop. The May staff report says the eight EV charging spaces are run by Electrify America and have room to expand to ten. Electrify America sets its own charging fees, and drivers also pay city parking rates while they charge.
The staff report also notes that the city currently has little data on parking after 6 p.m. The new system adds occupancy sensors, and rates will be reviewed each year based on that data. The Council's next priority-setting work session is scheduled for Dec. 15 to 17, which falls inside the December-or-January opening window Sedona Red Rock News reported.
What it costs to park in Uptown is part of everyday life for anyone who owns property nearby. If you own in Sedona and want to know how decisions like this one affect your home's value, Denise McManus can walk you through it. Get your instant home valuation.
