CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A federal appeals court judge has upheld a City of Chicago deal that gave a private company control over the city’s parking meters.
The deal had been challenged by frustrated Chicago motorists, who claimed in their lawsuit that the 75-year, $1.1 billion deal led to costly meter rates — in violation of U.S. antitrust law. The suit was previously dismissed in Illinois federal court, so they hoped to see it reinstated.
Although the judges wrote that the deal “might have been foolish, short-sighted, or worse,” they ultimately reached a unanimous decision to uphold the lawsuit’s dismissal.
“If one is to believe news reports, [the deal] may have saddled Chicago with the most expensive street parking in the country … but that is not enough to state a claim for a violation of the antitrust laws,” the judges wrote.
The appeals court said “the critical point” was that the City had the authority to enter into the 2008 deal.
“After the City decided to privatize certain on-street, metered parking … it put out a request for bids,” judges wrote. “Ten applicants responded … [Chicago Parking Meters] was the winning bidder. It offered to pay the City $1,156,500,000 in cash in exchange for the exclusive right to operate and collect revenue from the City’s network of metered parking.”
Following the agreement, the appeals court wrote that the cost of parking in areas covered by the deal “shot upward, quickly more than doubling.”
Chicago Parking Meters, the winning bidder that operates as Park Chicago, is responsible for Chicago’s 36,000 metered spaces — which it claims is among the largest systems in the entire country.
Read the full appeals court decision here.
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