Who Owns Chicago’s Parking Meters: CPM, the Lease, and City Limits

Chicago’s roughly 36,000 on-street parking meters are owned and operated by Chicago Parking Meters LLC, a private company backed by Morgan Stanley’s infrastructure arm, Allianz Capital Partners, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Deeside Investments Inc. The company holds a 75-year concession that runs through 2084, which means the City of Chicago will not directly control its metered curb space again until that lease expires.¹

How a Private Company Got the Meters

In December 2008, with the city facing a large budget deficit during the Great Recession, Mayor Richard M. Daley pushed the City Council to lease the entire metered parking system to CPM for a lump sum of roughly $1.157 billion. The Council approved the 75-year deal after just three days of review. It was the first time any American city had privatized its on-street metered parking.¹

Six months later, Chicago’s Inspector General concluded the city had been badly shortchanged. The IG estimated the system was worth about $2.13 billion over 75 years at a conservative 7 percent discount rate, and closer to $3.53 billion at a lower rate comparable to the one the federal government uses. By the IG’s math, the city received roughly $974 million less than the meters were worth, a gap of about 46 percent. The report also found that the city’s chief financial officer never calculated what the system would be worth if the city kept control, so aldermen voted without that comparison in hand.²

The investors have done well. Audited financial statements reviewed by NBC Chicago show the meters generated roughly $2 billion in revenue for CPM through 2024, and the investors recouped their initial outlay in about a decade. Decades remain on the contract.

What CPM Controls, and What the City Still Controls

CPM handles the physical system: installing and maintaining pay stations, collecting meter revenue, and running the ParkChicago mobile payment app. The City of Chicago kept the power to set rates and hours. That power comes with strings. Any time the city takes a metered space out of service, whether for construction, a festival, a bike lane, or a bus lane, the concession agreement requires the city to compensate CPM for the lost meter revenue.¹

Rate changes are also constrained. Rates could rise each year for the first five years of the lease. After December 2013, any increase above a small threshold needs City Council approval and cannot exceed the consumer price index.¹

Parking Tickets Still Come From the City

One point that surprises people: CPM does not write parking tickets. The City of Chicago’s Department of Finance handles all parking enforcement and keeps the citation revenue. CPM collects what you feed the meter; the city collects the fine if your time runs out.³

How the Lease Shapes Chicago’s Streets

The compensation clauses do more than move money. They reshape street design. Every proposal to add a protected bike lane, a bus-only lane, or an expanded sidewalk café on a block with meters triggers a bill to the city. These quarterly settlements are called “true-up” payments. In fiscal year 2024, the audited true-up payment was $7.59 million.⁴

The pandemic produced a separate, larger claim. When stay-at-home orders emptied the streets in 2020, CPM argued the city owed compensation for the resulting revenue losses. In May 2025, city lawyers recommended a $15.5 million settlement to resolve the claim.⁵

The Chicago Transit Authority felt the constraint when planning bus rapid transit. The agency originally envisioned twenty BRT routes requiring dedicated bus lanes. It found enough replacement meter sites for the first few routes, but it became clear there would not be enough replacements to cover every planned route without escalating costs.⁶

What You Pay at the Meter

Rates depend on where you park:⁷

Neighborhood zones: $2.50 per hour, typically 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Many neighborhood spaces are free on Sundays.
Central Business District outside the Loop: $4.75 per hour, 8 a.m. to midnight.
West Loop: $4.75 per hour.
Loop: $7.00 per hour from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and $3.50 per hour from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Paying through the ParkChicago app adds a $0.35 convenience fee on any transaction under two hours. There is no convenience fee on transactions of two hours or more.⁸

Can the Deal Be Overturned?

So far, no. In a case brought by the Independent Voters of Illinois, an Illinois appellate court rejected arguments that the lease violated the state constitution’s public purpose and home rule provisions. The court deferred to the City Council’s finding that the agreement served residents’ interests and held that the city had not surrendered its police powers by agreeing to compensate CPM.⁹

A separate federal lawsuit alleged the lease violated antitrust law by giving CPM a monopoly over on-street parking. In April 2023, the Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal, ruling that state-action immunity shielded the arrangement because the concession was authorized by clearly stated Illinois policy and the city retained meaningful regulatory control.¹⁰

When Does the City Get the Meters Back?

The lease is currently scheduled to end on February 29, 2084. On the day after, CPM must surrender the entire metered parking system back to the city, including all pay stations, technology, and improvements, in good working condition accounting for normal wear and tear. The handover happens automatically, with no additional payment required from the city.¹¹

1
World Bank Group Public-Private Partnership Resource Center. Chicago Metered Parking System Concession of 2008
2
Office of Inspector General, City of Chicago. An Analysis of the Lease of the City’s Parking Meters
3
City of Chicago. Parking Meters
4
City of Chicago. Aldermanic Request Parking Meters: True Up Payments
5
WTTW News. Pay $15.5M to Parking Meter Firm to Resolve Claim City Violated Deal During COVID-19 Pandemic
6
Wisconsin Law Review. Parking Meters: A Roadblock In Chicago’s Ability To Transform Its Streets
7
ParkChicago. Rates and Hours
8
ParkChicago. ParkChicago Home
9
FindLaw. Independent Voters of Illinois Independent Precinct Organization v Ahmad LLC (2014)
10
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Uetricht v Chicago Parking Meters LLC, No 22-1166
11
City of Chicago. Amended and Restated Chicago Metered Parking System Concession Agreement