Come January, visitors to the Southwest Oregon Regional Airport will pay to park their cars.

It could be as low as $5 per day or up to $8. It could be free the first hour, or the first two hours. It could cost $1, or $2 for each hour after that up to the maximum daily rate. And it could have a $25 maximum per month, or $30.

That much airport officials agreed on Thursday.

“I agree to keep it down low in these difficult economic times,” said Clair Jones, Coos County Airport District commissioner.

The challenge will be making sure the fees aren’t obstacles for drivers who are just there to drop off passengers at the North Bend airport.

Flight delays have been a reoccurring problem, said commissioner Helen Brunell Mineau. Most people like to watch the airplanes leave. Others like to spend some time eating or drinking at the Hangar Café.

Airport operations manager, Gene Cossey, suggested the café could give people parking vouchers if they spend a minimum amount of money.

According to an analysis by Cossey, if charged the $1 an hour rate, with a $5 a day maximum fee, the airport could make almost $205,000 a year. At the $2 per hour rate with an $8 a day maximum fee, the airport could clear about $339,000 annually.

That’s based on the assumption there would be a 65 percent usage rate and first-hour parking would be free. Of the 171 passenger parking spaces available, an airport survey estimated an annual average of 22 spaces per day would be used in the hourly rotation and 97 spaces per day would be charged the daily maximum.

Four commercial airports in Oregon charge for parking. The four — Redmond, Eugene, Medford and Portland — differentiated between short- and long-term parking, something that the North Bend airport is not going to do. Hourly rates ranged from $1 to $3, and daily rates from $7 for long-term to $14 for short-term parking.

Parking fees could eventually save taxpayers money. The cost for the automated parking system, equipment and installation, will come to approximately $230,000, Cossey said. Looking at the revenue estimates, it would pay for itself within a year.

The budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 earmarked $884,000 to come from property taxes to help pay for salaries and upkeep of the airport. The revenue from paid parking fees would cover a chunk out of that.

But commissioner John Briggs warned that 10 percent of the earnings from paid parking would have to be set aside to replace the equipment, which has an estimated lifespan of seven to 10 years. He also recommended charging $8 maximum per day.

Cossey said commissioners didn’t need to decide a fee schedule right away since installation wouldn’t begin until November.

“We are moving forward with the equipment,” he said. “Just before we install it, we need to put the numbers in.”