Downtown Parking

Stay updated on parking in Cedar Falls by subscribing to email notifications at bit.ly/cfnotify.

Welcome to the historic Cedar Falls downtown district! Nationally recognized as a designated Main Street Community, the area is home to a large variety of locally owned stores, restaurants, and recreational activities as well as state-wide renowned events.

Parking: The downtown district parking options include FREE 15 minute, 2 hour, 3 hour, 4 hour, and 24 hour (overnight) parking. Free parking is also available in certain shared business lots including Viking Pump. To view downtown parking maps, click here.

Parking Enforcement Hours: Monday – Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Parking Permits: Parking permits are available in the municipal lots. Purchase a permit at https://smartcity.ipsgroup.com/cedarfalls/ (parking permits can be purchased online only).

Public Electric Vehicle Charging Station: A dual-port Level 2 charger is located on West Second Street (across from City Hall). The charger is compatible with most electric vehicles. Learn more at cfu.net/EV.

Learn more about parking in downtown Cedar Falls.

Downtown Parking Study

As the thriving downtown district continues to grow, the City of Cedar Falls has worked together with Community Main Street to update parking to provide more effective and efficient options for area businesses, visitors, and residents. A parking study, performed by WGI in February 2019, included public and business input as well as data collection to provide recommendations on improvement.

View the primary findings and recommendations of the downtown parking study here. You can also download the entire final report and learn more about the public workshop that took place on December 5, 2018. 

Improvements from the Study

At the conclusion of the downtown parking study and in conjunction with public feedback, new parking recommendations were approved by City Council on June 17, 2019. To allow for a wider variety of choices for the community, the following updates took place in July 2019 and are now in effect in the downtown area:

Overnight Parking: Free overnight parking is now available on streets next to Main Street (for example, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Streets on either side of Main Street)

On-Street Parking: Additional free on-street parking in areas like State Street south of 2nd Street and angled parking on 2nd Street north of Overman Park is now open.

Parking Choices: Free on-street parking choices of 2, 3, and 24 hours and 15-minute drop-off/pick-up zones are now available throughout downtown

Enforcement: Enforcement time is now Monday through Saturday, 9 am – 8 pm.

To help provide more parking in the downtown area, the City of Cedar Falls formed a partnership with Viking Pump, Inc, located at 406 State Street, to allow for public use of their lot from 5:15 p.m to 5:00 a.m., Monday - Friday, and all hours on Saturday and Sunday. This provides 69 additional free parking spaces for the district. In 2019, the City also added 31 free parking stalls along 2nd Street and State Street for public use. 

Please subscribe to parking notifications here to stay updated on all things parking and follow the city on Facebook and Twitter @citycf.