A change is coming to paid parking in Salt Lake City

A big change is coming to Salt Lake City parking.

Salt Lake City Department of Public Services is set to begin work next week to replace over 270 pay stations scattered across the city but generally close to downtown.

"We're excited to offer residents and visitors an upgraded pay-to-park experience," said Julie Crookston, the department's director, in a statement Thursday.

The existing bright-blue-pillar pay stations are only a decade old but ran into issues with Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. The new stations, Crookston said, will solve that issue with ADA-compliant tablet-based interfaces that also come in different languages for users: English, Spanish, Vietnamese or Mandarin.

They also come in a variety of ways to pay.

"(Drivers) can choose how to pay with coins, credit card, via the ParkSLC mobile app and now with Google and Apple Pay too," she added.

The conversions are scheduled to begin on Monday and continue into October. It'll start with parking stations east of 200 East and south of 400 South, including Washington Square, Central City and some areas near the University of Utah.

That will be followed by stations in the central downtown core before the last wave targets mostly stations on the west end of the downtown core, including the Salt Palace Convention Center and Delta Center.

Pay stations will go offline 48 hours before each replacement, and parking spaces within that station area will be closed during that time, according to a city flier posted to one of the stations. Bags marked "no parking" will be placed on the parking stalls once a station is offline.

Vehicles will be towed at the owner's expense during that time. The bags will be removed once the new station is online and available to use.

The sign notes that parking rates won’t change nor will the standard “pay by space” option.