Visitors to Oakland City Hall and the civic center are encouraged to use active transportation (walking and biking) or transit (BART trains and AC Transit buses). For those who drive, the City owns and operates two garages: Dalziel Garage, located in the basement of 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza and with vehicle access from 16th St between Clay St and San Pablo Ave, and City Center West Garage, locate a couple of blocks from City Hall at 1250 Martin Luther King JR Way and with vehicle access from both Jefferson St and Martin Luther King JR Way.
Daily or hourly parking is available at both facilities and monthly parking is available at City Center West Garage. For more information, call City of Oakland Parking Partners at (510) 874-7170.
Visitors who are attending City Council meetings, whether full meetings or committee meetings, are eligible for free or validated parking.
Please arrive at the garage no sooner than one hour before the start of the full City Council or Committee meeting and plan to leave no later than one hour after the end of the meeting. For full City Council meetings, parking continues to remain free, so no payment or validation is required. When attending Committee meetings, please see below how to take advantage of validated parking.
EFFECTIVE TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2023, DALZIEL AND CITY CENTER WEST GARAGES ARE "PRE-PAY-BY-PLATE"
The same parking systems that are used to manage Oakland's on-street parking meters are now used to manage its garages. This change will save the City millions of dollars in equipment and operating costs and should also make parking easier.
How does parking validation work now that the garages have gone "gateless"? Visitors who are eligible for validated parking can expect the following when they arrive at Dalziel Garage:
- When you enter the garage, let the parking ambassador know that you are attending a City Council meeting; the ambassador will direct you to special spaces and make sure that your vehicle license plate is entered into our enforcement system;
- Sometimes it might happen that you do not see an ambassador in the garage. Note your license plate number and then head to City Hall for the meeting or meetings. Once there, let City staff know that you parked in the garage and provide your license plate;
- For those who use the ParkMobile mobile parking payment app, another option may be to use a special validation "promo code". This code may be provided by the parking ambassador or City staff.
NOTE: For some meetings, Dalziel Garage will be full. When this happens, parkers will be redirected to City Center West Garage, where they can take advantage of the same validation process.
Under this new system, there is no more worrying about loosing your parking "coin" or forgetting to have the coin validated while you are at the meeting.
If you stay for another meeting, there is no reason to move your car. Simply tell staff that you plan to stay for more than one meeting.
Again, validations for City Council meetings and other authorized uses will be honored one hour before and one hour after meetings.
For any questions or concerns about these changes or about the Off-Street Parking Program in general, please contact the Parking & Mobility Division manager by emailing mford@oaklandca.gov or calling (510) 238-7670.