"A wild patchwork quilt" Parking tariff dispute in St. Gallen: City considers legal action against parking garage
Uniform parking tariffs should ensure clarity in St. Gallen - but one parking garage is circumventing the rules. The city is now considering legal action.
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- In St.Gallen, a parking garage with cheaper rates than permitted is causing a dispute because it is undermining the uniform price regulations.
- The city considers this to be illegal, and no agreement has yet been reached with the operators.
- Overall, there is a confusing mix of different parking fees and systems depending on the location.
- The city is considering legal action against the parking garage, while new political debates on lower fees are underway.
A uniform parking tariff has been in force in the center of St.Gallen since November 2024. With this, the city wants to reduce the search for cheaper parking spaces and ensure clear conditions. Private parking garages must also adhere to this system and are not allowed to undercut the prices - at least in theory, as the Tagblatt writes. In practice, however, the picture is different.
Since the opening of the Central parking garage in March last year, this order has been disrupted. Although the first hour there costs CHF 2, parking is cheaper after that. This contradicts the provisions of the building permit from 2016, which clearly states that the rates may not be lower than those of the surrounding parking garages or public parking spaces - i.e. CHF 2 per hour. "They are clearly not adhering to the conditions, which means the tariff is illegal," said the president of the parking guidance system.
Agreement could not be reached
The city is also critical of the situation. The Office for Building Permits sought talks with the operators of the Central parking garage before and after the opening. However, it has not yet been possible to reach an agreement. At the same time, the tariff landscape has continued to diverge and is creating more and more confusion.
Today, drivers pay different prices depending on the location. In Brühltor or Burggraben, parking costs 2 francs per hour, in the Bahnhof parking garage under the University of Applied Sciences 2.60 francs and in the town hall 2.40 francs. A different system applies at Neumarkt: the first two half-hours cost 1.50 francs, from the second hour onwards 2 francs are charged per 40 minutes. This juxtaposition of different models leads to a veritable confusion of charges.
A quick solution is not in sight. The city has been considering legal action against Parkhaus Central for months in order to enforce the conditions of the building permit. However, it remains to be seen when these steps will actually be taken and what form they might take.
Wild patchwork
The inconsistent prices are also causing political criticism. One parliamentarian told the "Tagblatt" newspaper of "a wild patchwork with different hourly rates, day and night times, billing intervals and free times". This not only leads to confusion among road users, but also to more search traffic and undercutting each other's prices. "The latter provides further incentives to commute into the city by car and thus further congest the already full roads," she writes.
The discussion about parking spaces and charges has been a preoccupation in St.Gallen for years. Previous attempts to regulate the situation failed politically - such as a consensus from 2010 with a maximum of 4,544 parking spaces. Now the issue could come back to the ballot box: An initiative is calling for fees to be reduced by around 40 to 60 percent and for certain times to be made completely free, for example on Sundays or at night from 7 pm to 7 am.
