Agadir Municipality to Reinstate Paid Parking
The Agadir municipality is set to reinstate paid parking during its upcoming session in October 2026. Local officials are expected to approve a new agreement governing the management of underground parking facilities and public parking spaces within the municipal limits. This decision marks a significant shift from the previous contractual model, which had seen the suspension of parking fees since the end of the concession contracts with a private management company in 2021.
Initially, the Council announced in July 2021 that public parking in Agadir would be free until further notice. However, the implementation of this measure faced various challenges due to the influence of parking attendants and other practical difficulties. It wasn't until mid-2025, following a renewed emphasis on the free parking initiative and intervention from security services, that the policy was finally operationalized, all while awaiting the development of a new management framework which had been promised for over five years.
New Management Framework on the Horizon
The municipality aims to reclaim control over parking management by formalizing a new legal structure. As part of this initiative, the council members are tasked with evaluating and approving the proposed agreement concerning the management of paid parking services in both underground facilities and designated public parking zones. This topic is one of the fourteen items on the agenda for the upcoming ordinary session scheduled for Wednesday, requested by Saaid Amzazi, the wali of the Souss-Massa region and governor of the Agadir Ida-Outanane prefecture.
To prevent past mistakes and improve the management of this vital sector, Agadir will delegate the oversight of parking to the local development company "Grand Agadir for Mobility and Urban Transportation." Discussions regarding the establishment of the new legal framework, revenue generation from parking, operational rules of the agreement, and management modalities—including yet-to-be-announced pricing—were held in recent sessions of the public services and budget committees. According to the municipal budget reports from 2019 to 2021, revenue from parking in 2021 amounted to a mere 1.2 million dirhams as of September 30, falling short of expectations compared to previous years.
The total number of parking facilities has increased significantly, particularly following the implementation of Agadir's Urban Development Program (PDU). Currently, there are over 198 parking facilities categorized into three groups, with Categories A and B leased under annual agreements. The first two categories cover areas of 58,786 and 167,062 square meters respectively. Category C consists of one established parking area, located at Place Bijaouane (13,874 square meters) in the coastal zone.
As reported by leseco.ma.
