OGDEN, Utah — It has been two months since people had to start paying to park on 25th Street in Ogden, and some businesses say they are seeing a dip in customers.
"When people come in, they feel like they're at home,” said Ronald Yeates, who owns No Frills Diner on 25th Street.
He said, lately, business has felt like an uphill battle.
"Especially in this economy because the price of everything has gone up,” he said.
With major construction across the street for the WonderBlock project with apartments, shops and office spaces, Yeates said it’s been tough for a couple of years, and the past two months came with more challenges.
"The implementation of the parking, paid parking, which I’m not totally against because I think it'll help create more places for my customers to park, but people just aren’t accepting it. They don’t like it."
Cindy Reinhard with Ogden City acknowledged that it is a big change for people and that can be tough. She also said they tried to add as many free spaces as possible for people to park.
"Side streets are still free, Washington is free, Union Station is still free, Junction garage is free," Reinhard said. "There’s still so many options. People have options to get downtown and hang out,”
She also said the OGX service through UTA is now free till 2028, giving people more ways to visit 25th Street through public transit.
But still, Yeates said he’s seen business dip about 20-25%, which has been a challenge.
The spots right on 25th Street, in front of businesses, cost about $1.50 to park for an hour, after 15 free minutes. Parking at some of the city parking lots and the WonderBlock parking garage is $1 an hour.
Reinhard said they have seen spots to improve and are working on it after getting feedback from residents and businesses.
“Oh, we need more signage. We're getting more signage. Oh, we need more clarity between what is paid and what is free. OK, we're doing that as well,” she explained. “And so, that probably honestly could have been better on the city's part, and so now we're trying to make sure to address those issues with residents and businesses downtown."
In 2024, Ogden City planned to implement paid parking, but that plan was put on hold after businesses expressed frustration with the plan and were worried about where their customers and employees would park.
In 2026, the project came back with major changes, including passes for employees and more free spots as well. At the time, the city said managed parking was needed to help increase turnover in downtown and because it was a condition of the bond under which the WonderBlock parking garage was built.
On May 5, 2025, city council voted to approve managed parking, officially coming into effect on June 22.
Reinhard said the whole goal with paid parking is to help increase turnover and give more people a chance to visit 25th Street.
Angie Van Leer at Lene Marie Chocolates, who tried hard to stop paid parking in the first place, said they’ve seen business drop too.
"There’s plenty of spaces out there because nobody's coming,” she said. “So it’s been slower."
Reinhard said they have seen signs of more people visiting 25th Street these past few weeks.
"We get records of sales tax revenue, and we're seeing that there is a little bit of a boost in that as well,” she added.
Yeates said he has been validating parking for customers out of his own pocket.
"I’d rather pay the $1.50 than have nothing, so I was willing to pay that in order to get people to come in the door,” he explained.
