Hood River City Councilors Anna Cavaleri, Ben Mitchell, Board President Gladys Rivera, Mayor Paul Blackburn, Doug Stepina, Grant Polson, and Amanda Goeke.
Hood River City Councilors Anna Cavaleri, Ben Mitchell, Board President Gladys Rivera, Mayor Paul Blackburn, Doug Stepina, Grant Polson, and Amanda Goeke.
HOOD RIVER — City council adopted a revised Transportation Network Companies (TNC) fee schedule at a July 13 public hearing for providers such as Uber and Lyft.
TNCs have been a reoccurring meeting topic since 2023. In September 2025, council established a $1,000 annual fee for the TNCs “corporate applicant,” with an additional $100 annual fee for each driver operating in the city.
But after the resolution passed, staff met with Uber representatives who cited Hood River’s low trip numbers and proposed an alternative fee structure.
Effective immediately, the company fee drops to $100 and the driver fee to $50. Total annual TNC fees (license and driver) are capped at $800, with “driver” defined as someone who makes more than 50% of their trips — and more than 10 a year — within city limits.
Taxi fees remain unchanged.
The decision to allow TNCs at all was criticized earlier in the meeting by a local taxi driver. But, as President Gladys Rivera said, the council has been working to address ride availability with transportation partners for several years, and data continues to show a need.
“When you have a wedding that has 100-plus people that are coming, that capacity is not able to be filled by our current network that we have in place,” she said.
The adjusted fees are effective through the end of the year.
Action items: Parking study update, property sale
Action items, all of which passed unanimously, included a downtown parking management updated study and the sale of a 10-foot-wide strip of property to Horsefeathers, located at 115 State St.
Significant changes have been made downtown since the 2019 parking study, said Planning Director Dustin Nilsen; to understand how those developments have affected parking, the city will conduct a review of its parking management policies, programs, and technologies, and update the plan where needed. As for the property sale, the unused and unmaintained strip will now incorporated and maintained by Horsefeather’s owners.
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