VIRGINIA BEACH — Residents will get up to $50 in free parking at the Oceanfront next summer thanks to a voucher plan approved by the City Council on Tuesday.
Registration for the 2026 voucher will begin early next year, and the program will take effect April 1.
Participants will have the option to reload the voucher during the year at a discounted rate of $25 for $50 worth of parking for the first re-load only. Unused credits will expire at the end of the year. Residents will need to reapply each year, according to the city.
The City Council wanted to give Virginia Beach residents a break on parking costs to make locals feel more welcome and to encourage them to come to the Oceanfront. Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson, who represents the south end of the resort area, campaigned on free parking for residents in the 2024 election. The Atlantic Avenue Association, comprised of business and community members, also lobbied for free parking for residents.
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The program will apply to on-street metered parking along Atlantic Avenue between Rudee Loop and 38th Streets and the side streets in between Atlantic and Pacific avenues. It also includes the public lots at Rudee Loop, Second and Fourth streets as well as the city garages at Ninth, 25th and 31st streets.
Providing the discount will reduce revenue in the city’s parking fund, which is used to pay for facility operations and maintenance. The amount of usage will determine the impact. A digital voucher will be issued via a mobile app that will track usage per resident.
“If there is less participation, there will be less impact to the revenue collected,” city spokesperson Ali Weatherton wrote in an email. “The greater risk is that a really high participation rate, without a corresponding increase in paid parking, could impact the revenue collected more significantly, which might require deferral of some capital maintenance items until a strategy could be deployed to address the shortfall in revenue.”
In the current fiscal year, total revenue in the Parking Enterprise Fund is estimated to be $7.8 million, a 12.6% increase over the previous year’s adopted budget, primarily as the result of the Atlantic Park parking garages opening in May 2025.
The council also approved adjustments to pricing and time limits related to parking options at the Oceanfront. The changes are designed to encourage longer stays in garages and to promote turnover in sought-after on-street parking while keeping short visits affordable.
The city will reduce the first hour of on-street metered parking from $2 to $1. Progressive pricing will be applied after one hour for the metered spaces and in the city lots and garages. It would cost the most to park at meters for extended hours; the garages would max out at $24 per day.
Among other changes the city eliminated the $3 after 5 p.m. resident discount in the garages; eliminated the 3-hour on-street parking maximum limit, increased unreserved monthly parking rates from $60 to $100; increased reserved monthly parking rates from $100 to $150; increased seasonal lot permits from $70 to $100; and eliminated the current discount on the second lot permit purchase.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
