Airport parking fees voted down by Columbia City Council

Parking at Columbia Regional Airport (COU) will remain free after the city council voted down a proposed increase Tuesday night.

In a 5 to 2 vote, the council rejected a measure that would have imposed a $3 per day parking fee at the airport.

Council members Betsy Peters and Ian Thomas supported the parking fee.

Thomas suggested a portion of the city’s transportation sales tax revenue be redirected to transit and that the parking fees could offset the loss for COU.

Instead, the council opted to spend $57,000 from reserve funding to avoid raising para-transit fees by one dollar in 2019.