DES MOINES, Iowa — Des Moines residents and visitors will soon be able to pay for parking through a mobile app.
Monday night, the Des Moines City Council approved a proposal from Georgia-based company ParkMobile through Sept. 30, 2024. It iss now up to City Manager Scott Sanders to execute the agreement.
ParkMobile will pay more than $3 million to revitalize the parking structure in downtown Des Moines in less than a year.
Visitors will notice fewer parking meters, centralized hubs to pay to park and a new app to pay as you park.
City leaders believe redoing parking infrastructure will make a driver's experience easier.
"We have the advantage that we're not on the leading edge," said John Davis, a city engineer for Des Moines. "So we don't have to be the trailblazers, we're able to benefit from past deployments that the learned lessons from colleagues in other cities in other agencies."
When the app is officially ready for use, drivers will be able to enter their zone number, set their time to park, pay and then leave. Those with the app will also receive notifications for when their time is about to expire.
City leaders said the app will be available sometime early next year.
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