Parking will soon cost more in Madison, as city officials approved an increase in meter fees Monday night that will go into effect June 1.

The Board of Estimates voted to increase on-street parking meter rates from 50 cents to 75 cents per hour and from $1.50 to $1.75 per hour, depending on the parking zone. The board also approved raising the rates for meter hoods from $13 to $15 per day and from $7 to $8 for a half day.

According to Ald. Tim Bruer, District 14, the city will use the additional revenue from the increase to rebuild old parking structures and fund other capital improvements.

The Transit and Parking Commission recommended the amended prices, which Bruer said was also partly in response to the economic downturn.

“We are serving two masters,” Bruer said. “We want customers to be able to afford parking, especially in the central city, but parking ramps are very expensive to maintain and we need the revenue.”

According to Madison Parking Utility, the rate changes will yield an estimated $679,000 increase in revenue in 2009 and about $1.4 million in 2010, the first full year of implementation.

Madison Parking Utility Operations manager Bill Knobloch said the parking hikes would probably not have a large effect on students because the initiative is aimed toward commercial areas of the city.

Knobloch added the newly increased parking rates are comparable to other cities, and Madison was due for a rate adjustment, as the latest parking increase was the first in about three years, the standard amount of time between adjustments.

According to Knobloch, local businesses said they would prefer to see higher hourly parking rates than have meter-enforced hours extend later into the night that may deter late-night patrons.

“We must provide affordable [parking] rates that don’t detract from business, especially those downtown and especially in this economy,” Bruer said.

Knobloch agreed businesses would lose customers if parking rates are increased too much, but he said the recent hike is reasonable and the city should not lose customers.

The city might also encourage drivers to park in underutilized parking areas by only raising rates in congested parking garages, Bruer said. He added the Overture Center Ramp and several other ramps in Madison are underutilized and there are many parking ramps with not enough space for drivers.

At the meeting, board members also passed an amendment that requires all city of Madison agency applications for local, state and federal funds to first be approved by the Board of Estimates, according to Janet Piraino, chief of staff to Mayor David Cieslewicz.

“The board should have the opportunity to weigh in before [the agencies] apply,” Piraino said.

Before the amendment, every agency applied for funding separately Piraino said, but the new measure will make applications more efficient, transparent and better organized.