Chicago City Council approves $2.5 billion parking meter sale in 46-3 vote

The Chicago City Council voted 46-3 on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, to approve New York investment firm Stonepeak Partners’ $2.53 billion purchase of Chicago Parking Meters LLC, the private company that has run the city’s roughly 36,000 parking meters under a lease signed in 2008. Alderpeople approved the sale along with a revised meter agreement that pays the city $75 million when the deal closes and 5 percent of the meter company’s future profits, with the money going to city pensions, Block Club Chicago reported.

Alds. William Hall (6th), Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) and Jason Ervin (28th) voted no. The City Clerk’s record for the ordinance shows Ald. Angela Clay (46th) did not vote and Mayor Brandon Johnson signed the measure the same day. The vote came one day before a September 30 deadline set as part of the sale.

Here is the deal at a glance, based on the ordinance and news coverage of the vote:

• Affiliates of Stonepeak Partners will own all of Chicago Parking Meters LLC, which keeps running the meters under the 2008 concession.
• The city is due a $75 million payment at closing, and that money is set aside for city pensions.
• The city will collect 5 percent of the meter company’s yearly net income, which negotiators estimated at $376.2 million over the remaining term.
• Meter rates and hours are not part of the change, and private control of the meters still runs into 2084.
• Any later sale of the meter company would pay the city 2 percent of the price and would need City Council approval.

What changes for drivers and what stays the same

People who drive and park in Chicago won’t pay more at the meter because of the sale, WTTW reported, and ABC7 Chicago reported that drivers will not see immediate changes. The third amendment to the concession agreement that alderpeople approved does not touch the rate or hours schedules, and the document says every provision it does not amend stays in force.

The meters also stay private. The city’s amended concession agreement runs until 11:59 p.m. on February 29, 2084, which leaves roughly 57 years on the 75-year lease. Chicago Parking Meters LLC remains the company that holds the concession. What the ordinance changes is who owns that company: a group that includes Morgan Stanley infrastructure funds, Allianz and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is selling to Stonepeak affiliates.

Meter prices could still change on a separate track. NBC Chicago, which ranked Chicago’s meter prices fourth-highest in the nation at about $7 an hour, reported that a companion ordinance in the works could bring yearly price increases. Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) argued the city loses value when rates are not tied to inflation. That proposal was not part of Tuesday’s vote.

Personal data gets new limits. Under the amendment, the meter company can’t hand personal data, a category that covers license plate numbers, card numbers and records of how someone uses the meters, to any law enforcement agency or government body other than the city unless the law requires it or a valid subpoena or court order compels it. The company generally has to tell the city about any such demand. The ordinance describes the goal as keeping meter data away from federal immigration enforcement.

The amendment also creates a working group to study on-street electric-vehicle charging, with costs and revenue to be negotiated, and commits both sides to explore other services at the pay boxes, including sales of the city’s wheel tax emblems, better known as city stickers. The company will also report what share of their Chicago-resident workers live in the city’s economically disadvantaged areas, and WTTW reported that at least half of the workforce must live in Chicago.

How the true-up payments change

The deal keeps the true-up payments from the 2008 lease but trims them for big annual events. The city still has to pay the meter company for lost revenue when meters are removed, taken out of service with the city’s permission or used by drivers with disability parking placards, WTTW reported, and taxpayers have paid $246 million for those costs since 2008. Bike lanes, bus lanes and construction closures still carry a bill.

Under the amendment, the city can close metered spaces for up to 10 hours during seven named events each year before a closure counts as a full day, up from the six-hour threshold that still applies to every other closure. The listed events are the Bud Billiken Parade, the Chinese Lunar New Year Parade, the Mexican Independence Day Parade in Little Village, the Pride Parade, Riot Fest, the Southside Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Toys for Tots Parade. The city can swap in a different event in any year, as long as the replacement runs no longer and affects no more meters.

Any payment the city still owes for those events comes first from existing settlement credits and then from meter money already owed to the city, such as revenue from reserve meters and convenience fees. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that paying from those sources avoids tapping other city funds. The ordinance also orders an annual city audit of how the company handles convenience-fee revenue.

How the 5 percent and the $75 million work

The profit share is 5 percent of what the amendment calls calculated net income, which is the net income on the meter company’s audited financial statements for the prior calendar year. The one adjustment strips out management fees paid to Stonepeak-controlled entities that are not at arm’s length and exceed the prior year’s amount adjusted for inflation. The company must pay within 150 days after each calendar year ends, and the city can audit the books behind the number.

Negotiators put the total at $376.2 million over the life of the deal, based on estimates that the meters will bring in $7 billion, according to WTTW. The Sun-Times called that figure a conservative estimate in today’s dollars. Ald. Bill Conway (34th), an investment banker, has argued the number is inflated because Stonepeak can deduct interest costs and depreciation. “This is not quite the big win that I thought it was,” Conway said at the Finance Committee meeting, according to WTTW.

The $75 million is due on or about the day the city and the company sign the amendment, under the ordinance. If the city has not received the money by the end of 2026, or within 10 days after the sale closes if that comes first, the approval is revoked. The chief financial officer has to notify the City Council when the payment arrives, and the council will decide how to split it among the city’s pension funds. WTTW reported the sale is expected to close by the end of the year.

If Stonepeak ever sells, the city gets 2 percent of the price. The chief financial officer would have 30 days to review a proposed sale and make a recommendation, and the council would have 90 days to approve or reject it. The amendment also lets the city submit its own offer within 30 days of being notified of a sale.

What happens next

Several pieces still have to fall into place, according to the ordinance, the amendment and news reports:

• The sale has to close, which WTTW reported is expected by the end of 2026.
• The city has to receive the $75 million by the end of 2026 or within 10 days of closing, or the approval is revoked.
• The City Council will decide how to divide the $75 million and later profit payments among the pension funds.
• Each 5 percent payment is due within 150 days after the calendar year it covers.
• The sale of Omni Air International is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 or early 2027, pending regulatory approval.

How the vote went

The council’s Finance Committee advanced the deal on September 24, with Ervin and Hall voting no, WTTW reported. A full council vote planned for a special meeting on Friday, September 25, was deferred to Tuesday, the clerk’s record shows. City officials had warned that missing the deadline could expose Chicago to millions of dollars in arbitration costs, Fox 32 Chicago reported, and the Sun-Times reported the current owners had threatened legal action if the sale was not approved.

Five alderpeople negotiated the changes: Pat Dowell (3rd), who chairs the Finance Committee, Nicole Lee (11th), Walter “Red” Burnett (27th), Scott Waguespack (32nd) and Gilbert Villegas (36th). The Sun-Times reported the team worked without the mayor’s input, with help from Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry, and that Johnson was briefed after the deal was done.

Waguespack cast one of the five no votes on the 2008 lease, Block Club reported. The council approved that deal 40-5 on December 4, 2008, two days after Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration announced it, according to a 2009 Inspector General’s report that concluded the city was paid, conservatively, $974 million less than the meters were worth. Dowell and Alds. Michelle Harris (8th), Anthony Beale (9th) and Brendan Reilly (42nd) voted for both the original lease and Tuesday’s sale, WTTW reported.

What supporters said

Waguespack, who helped negotiate the new terms, said he still doesn’t like the 2008 deal, “but this is the best deal that had been on the table,” according to Block Club. He compared the talks to buying a car, where buyer and dealer settle somewhere in the middle, ABC7 reported. He also said anyone with a better idea should have brought one forward a year ago, WBBM Newsradio reported.

Dowell framed the vote around pensions and property taxes, saying any dent in pension liabilities eases pressure to raise property taxes or find other revenue, according to ABC7. “We made a poor deal back in 2008 a little bit better,” she said, according to NBC Chicago.

Johnson had declined to tell alderpeople how to vote before Tuesday, saying the decision belonged to the council, WBBM reported. After the vote he said, “This is a stronger agreement than what was there before,” according to ABC7, adding that Chicagoans had a seat at the table this time. He called the 2008 lease the worst deal of his lifetime, Block Club reported.

What critics said

Ervin, who chairs the Budget Committee, argued the city settled too cheaply. He said the new owners stand to collect $7.5 billion to $8 billion in revenue over the rest of the concession and that the city could have gotten more than $75 million, ABC7 reported. He also said the council rushed the agreement through without an independent financial analysis, according to Block Club. “We chose to cower down and sell out for $75 million,” Ervin said, according to the Sun-Times. His own plan for a public infrastructure trust to buy back the meters drew no support, WTTW reported.

Hall said Black-owned firms were left out of the $17 million in professional services contracts tied to the acquisition, and that in a city that is 27 percent Black, African American contractors should get a matching share, the Sun-Times reported. He called the arrangement “taxation and no representation,” Chicago City Wire reported.

Sigcho-Lopez, who does not sit on the Finance Committee and cast his first vote on the deal on the floor, argued the numbers still favor the investors, setting the billions the owners stand to make over the remaining term against the city’s $75 million upfront payment, according to Chicago City Wire.

The Omni Air condition

The deal also hinged on an airline. Omni Air International had a Department of Homeland Security contract for long-haul deportation flights, and more than a dozen progressive alderpeople said they would not back the sale unless Stonepeak got rid of the carrier, WTTW reported. On Monday, September 28, Stonepeak-owned Air Transport Services Group announced an agreement to sell Omni Air to OAI Holdings LLC, and the sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 or early 2027, pending regulatory approval, Air Cargo News reported.

Stonepeak filed a certification with the city promising the sale, which the city’s top lawyer said could not be shared with the public, WTTW reported. Under the amendment, the meter company must give confidential status updates on the pending sale to the Finance Committee chair and the chief financial officer on request, no more than once a month.

Why the meters were for sale

The 2008 lease gave a private group the meters for 75 years in exchange for $1.157 billion upfront, according to the Inspector General’s report. Between 2009 and 2025, the meters brought in about $2.2 billion in revenue for the company, according to city records cited by WTTW. The investors put the concession up for sale in 2024, and the 2008 deal requires the City Council to approve any sale.

The city bid $3.2 billion to take the meters back, the highest offer, before Johnson announced in January that Chicago would drop out because the price had climbed too high, WTTW reported. The city would have had to borrow billions and pledge parking fine, garage tax and meter revenue to repay the debt, according to the Johnson administration.

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