A move by city hall to end free parking on nights and weekends in several parking areas downtown has many local business owners calling on city officials to reconsider the new rates.

The additional $2 fee, which will become effective July 1, will worsen an already tight squeeze for drivers parking downtown, merchants say, and may even deter some from visiting the Roanoke City Market -- especially given the abundance of free parking at nearby shopping malls.

"We've been marketing this for a number of years to encourage people to come downtown," said Logan Forsyth, a past board chairman for Downtown Roanoke Inc. "It has finally become successful. We're now confusing people by charging them."

Some merchants also noted that raising rates now would only negate efforts to revive this once languishing segment of Roanoke. City Councilman Sherman Lea agrees.

"We want to revitalize and make our downtown area grow -- to make it stronger, to make it enticing," Lea said. "Increasing fees for parking is not the way to go if we want to keep our downtown area vibrant and strong."

His was the lone dissenting voice when, earlier this month, the city council voted to raise rates on its municipal garages and lots in downtown to help pay off a debt service of $7.2 million for another garage the city is building across the street from the Roanoke police station. The new rate structure was part of this year's budget, which city council passed at its May 14 meeting. It will affect several highly used municipal parking areas in downtown, including the Market Square garage on Campbell Avenue and the Gainsboro garage near the Roanoke Higher Education Center. Parking on Sundays will remain free, but the city is ending free event parking for some downtown lots.

Vice Mayor David Trinkle, who voted for the increases, said the council sought the new rate structure as a way to make the city's parking areas pay for themselves.

"Right now, the rates are significantly lower than other cities elsewhere," Trinkle said. "It certainly should not be something that will keep people from going downtown," he said, adding that it may even raise awareness of the city's parking offerings.

Even so, many shop and restaurant owners have criticized the new fee harshly, even going so far as to call it a threat to their livelihood.

"They are trying to raise funds on the backs of the businesses down here," said Eric Dresser, owner of Calhoun & Kipp on Market Street.

Many merchants say parking is the No. 1 complaint among visitors downtown, and that slapping a fee on otherwise free parking times, especially on Saturdays when the City Market is bustling, may jam up traffic more than it is with more people trying to snag short-term spots on the street.

"One of the biggest perceived problems by our customers is the lack of public parking," said Sands Woody, owner of Trio Bistro Bar Bottle on Market Street. "We can tell them it's not only here, it's free on nights and weekends."

Predictably, parkers aren't happy either. Virginia Vipperman of Roanoke, 23, who works at Retrospect Interiors, a furniture store, said, "Everyone is trying to make downtown more of a booming place, and I think this is going to detract from that. ... No reason the parking garage shouldn't be free on weekends; the goal is to get people downtown. They aren't going to do that if they have to pay."

Russ Berry, 23, who lives in Radford and works at Mill Mountain Theatre, said, "Don't we all pay taxes? If it's just one parking garage in one part of town, why does everyone have to pay?"

For years business owners have used the free parking as a selling point to lure visitors to Roanoke's historic core. Woods said it was among one of the offerings he had hoped to highlight in an ad campaign and television commercial he had been working on with several other businesses to promote downtown.

Officials with the Roanoke Higher Education Center have also balked at the increase, claiming that ending free nighttime parking will pose a hardship for cash-strapped students who usually park at the nearby Gainsboro garage. Those increases will affect short-term weekday and monthly rates, in addition to tacking on a new $2 flat rate for weekday nights.

The city has pledged to work with the center on a discount for students and notes that there is already a cheaper rate in place for those attending classes.

But center Executive Director Thomas McKeon e-mailed city officials last week saying that the center has already lost one business to fee increases and may lose more if a compromise on the rates is not reached.

Carrie Spalding, 25, of Roanoke, who takes night classes at the education facility, said she was dismayed about the nighttime parking fee in the Gainsboro garage.

"I don't want to have to pay to park several times a week," she said.

Spalding's husband, Mitch, also said the prospect of fees is a disappointment, especially for shoppers.

"If I want fresh produce, I'll go to Fresh Market and not have to pay for parking," he said.

On-street parking is limited to about 133 spaces or 10 percent of public parking available downtown, according to the city's 2006 City Market Plan. The rest of the 1,260 slots are housed in lots and garages.

But combined, the number of spaces available downtown should be enough for the number of restaurants and retail shops within the area, say city officials, even though the perception is often that there is a shortage of parking.

"All the studies have shown there's a parking surplus," Trinkle said. "But part of the problem is a lot of us, myself included, don't like to park in garages. We're always looking for street parking."

Lea nevertheless questioned whether the city should raise parking fees at a time when the city and its merchants are trying to raise its profile among visitors. Lea, who voted against the increases, said that although there's a never-ending need for money, the city should have made the financial sacrifice to demonstrate its support for downtown merchants.

"We can always make the case for additional money," Lea said. "But we've got to pick and choose those areas that can help us."