Motorists parking in Chicago have reached the end of a small grace period—parking meter rates will start to rise this month.

The increased rate is part of the city’s deal reached on Dec. 4 to privatize the parking meters. The Chicago City Council approved the 75-year, $1.2 billion private lease with Chicago Parking Meters, LLC in a 40-5 vote to fix a gap in the city’s budget.

Under the new plan, metered parking spots in neighborhoods will cost $1 per hour, up from 75 cents, and spots in the Loop will cost $3.50 per hour, up from $3.

Though the increase was slated to take effect Jan. 1, the new rates have not gone up yet because it takes time to recalibrate all the machines to reflect the new rates.

Peter Scales, director of Public Affairs for the Chicago Office of Budget and Management, said people should be aware of the changes by now.

“The city has been talking about them for some time, and they’re going to start being implemented,” Scales said. “Folks should know about them by the time the meters start changing over.”

Scales said there are 36,000 meters in the Chicago area that will need to be recalibrated to reflect the new rates.

“The majority of the meters are downtown,” Scales said. “The meters in the Loop will be the first ones to be recalibrated.”

Scales said making the change will be simple—each meter will be recalibrated, a new sticker will be added and signs will be changed to reflect the new prices.

“People just need to pay attention to the new signs and follow them accordingly,” Scales said.

Kelly Follett, 35, commutes to Chicago every day for her job in the CNA Insurance building, 333 S. Wabash Ave. Follett said she was not looking forward to the increase but there was nothing she could do about it.

“I still have to go to work,” Follett said. “I guess I’ll have to get used to carrying more quarters.”

The cost to park in neighborhood lots owned by the city will also be going up. Some rates have already been raised, but Scales was not sure when those changes would go into effect.

“They’re concentrating on the meters downtown first,” Scales said. “When those are changed, the parking lots will become the next focus.”

Privately owned parking lots will not be affected by these changes. However, the 2009 city budget passed on Nov. 19 did include a new parking tax for motorists who pay more than $12 to park in private lots. The tax was increased from $2.25 to $3 on Jan. 1.

Scales said the city will no longer be in charge of maintenance or new equipment installation. Instead, the leaser, Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, will be taking over that responsibility in the future, including making the decisions about upgrading meters. There has been talk of switching to meters that accept credit cards and can be accessed remotely from the Internet or a cell phone, but there are no official plans in place at this time.

“Their intention is to make those changes,” Scales said. “There is language in the agreement that holds them to that—to add new technologies.”

Brian Ortiz, 24, a graduate student at DePaul University, said it makes sense for the city to have machines that accept credit cards.

“It’s hard for people to carry around rolls of quarters to feed the meters,” Ortiz said. “Plus, everyone would benefit from being able to pay from their computer. It would be nice not to have to keep going outside every few hours just to feed the meters.”

Another possible change would prevent people from parking for free or “piggybacking” on the last few minutes of someone else’s time. New meters could be set to recalibrate as soon as the car pulls out of the spot.