Springfield Parking Authority

Parking in the limited and valuable property defined by a central business district of a city is normally expensive. Land use, environmental and esthetic issues all play a role in the quantity, location and cost of parking. Springfield city governmental officials had great insight into the city's future economic development needs when they envisioned and authorized the Springfield Parking Authority (SPA) in the hopes that public parking prices for its citizens could be kept as low as costs of upkeep would allow. They knew that a public authority would not have a profit margin built into its pricing.

The Springfield Parking Authority (SPA) is a body politic, and corporate and a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, created and approved by the mayor and city council of Springfield and the Massachusetts Legislature in 1981. The SPA is primarily responsible for the development and management of a comprehensive public off-street parking system in support of economic development activities in downtown Springfield. Beginning in 2008, the Springfield Parking Authority has taken over management of on-street parking. This includes maintenance of all on-street parking equipment, monitoring of on-street parking usage, citation issuance and collection, and parking studies to better serve the City of Springfield.