Asheville Parking Information

Where Should I Park in Downtown Asheville?

Metered Street Parking: The Short-Term Option

More than 700 on-street metered spaces line downtown Asheville's Central Business District, and they're built for quick stops rather than all-day visits. Each meter allows a two-hour maximum, and the rate across the board is $2.50 per hour. You can feed the meter with coins, a credit card, or the Flowbird app (look for the zone and space numbers printed on a sticker on the meter itself).

Watch the clock, not just the calendar. Meters are enforced from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Outside those hours, and on Sundays and designated city holidays, on-street parking is free. That makes an early dinner or a Sunday gallery crawl an easy call: park on the street and skip the meter altogether.

City and County Parking Decks: The Longer-Stay Option

If you're settling in for a full afternoon of shopping or an evening show, a parking deck is the better bet. The city operates four garages downtown: Biltmore Avenue, Harrah’s Cherokee Center, Rankin Avenue, and Wall Street. City-owned garages are free for the first hour, then charge $2 per hour or fraction of an hour, capped at a $15 daily maximum.

Buncombe County runs two additional decks: the College Street Parking Deck at 164 College Street, across from the Buncombe County Judicial Complex, and the Sears Alley deck at 11 Sears Alley, next to the county's Health and Human Services building on Coxe Avenue. Both county decks stay open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and charge $1 for the first half hour and $1 for the second, or $2 for the full first hour, with a $1 hourly rate after that and a $12 daily maximum.

Traveling with an ADA placard or plate? On-street ADA spaces are free to use, and city garages also set aside ADA-accessible spots for longer stays at the standard garage rate.

Finding a Spot Without the Guesswork

You don't have to drive in blind. 

The city and county share real-time space counts across garages through a joint parking app, so you can check availability before you commit to a deck instead of hoping for the best on arrival. If a downtown event has the decks filling fast, that same tool will point you toward whichever garage still has room.

When Special Events Change the Rules

Downtown Asheville's parking math shifts when a concert or a big weekend rolls into town. Special event rates apply to large events held at Harrah's Cherokee Center, as well as to certain other downtown events, and the number of garages charging those rates depends on how big the event is. 

On those nights, a portion of every special event parking ticket sold through the city garages goes toward restoring the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, one of Asheville's oldest theaters, so even a parking fee does a little civic good. 

If you're heading downtown for a show, plan for the possibility of a flat event rate rather than the usual hourly one, and budget a few extra minutes to find an open garage.

Skip the Car: Riding the ART

If circling for a spot isn't your idea of a good time at all, leave the car behind entirely. Asheville Rides Transit, known locally as ART, is the city-owned public bus system, running 18 routes out of the ART Station at 49 Coxe Avenue for a standard one-way fare of $1. Several of those routes run straight through the River Arts District, connecting the working studios and galleries along Depot Street and Roberts Street to downtown and neighborhoods beyond. Hop on for an afternoon of gallery-hopping, and you'll never have to think about a meter at all.

Between the bus and your own two feet, downtown Asheville opens up quickly once the car is parked. The city's compact grid means most of what draws you here sits within an easy walk of wherever you land.

The Short Version

• Park on the street for a quick stop, mind the two-hour limit, and remember that after 6 p.m., on Sundays, and on city holidays, the meters go quiet. 
• Settling in longer? Pull into a city or county deck, where the first hour (or first half hour, for county decks) won't cost you a thing. 
• Heading to a show at Harrah's Cherokee Center, budget for an event rate instead. 
• However you land, downtown Asheville is built for exploring on foot once you're parked, so the smartest parking strategy is often the one that gets you out of the car the fastest.