More local governments are embracing smart growth, seeking to reenergize downtowns, and direct development to areas where people have “front door” choices to walk, bike, take transit or drive. But too often, the political will to follow a more urban and pedestrian vision seems to wither in the face of demands for more parking by neighbors and merchants.
By Cathy Locke - Bee Staff Writer
Placerville City Council members declined to grant a holiday from Saturday parking fees, saying it could skew data needed to evaluate the effectiveness of parking regulations enacted in January.
Downtown merchants asked the city to eliminate Saturday parking enforcement in the Center Street parking structure and city-owned lots. The council denied the request but agreed to reconsider at the end of the summer.
City Manager John Driscoll, updating the council on the parking program last week, said a majority of merchants surveyed in the spring thought paid parking, particularly on Saturday, deterred customers from coming to the Main Street area.
Driscoll said that fees collected on Saturdays currently account for only about one-tenth of the city's overall parking revenue.
Eliminating Saturday enforcement through the Christmas season would not seriously affect the city financially and, Driscoll said, "It would give the merchants an opportunity to see if what they would like works."
But council members said eliminating Saturday enforcement at this point would make it difficult to assess the effectiveness of the parking program's first year.
"Christmas season is always busy, so it will be a success. It's not a good test," Councilwoman Patty Borelli said.
Other council members said they feared downtown employees would take up the prime parking spots.
Two hours of free parking are available daily in the parking structure and city-owned lots. Those wishing to stay beyond two hours pay for parking at a rate of $1 per hour.
The parking program was designed to encourage business owners and their employees to park outside the core area to open up the most convenient parking for customers. City officials said it also was needed to generate revenue to maintain current parking facilities and construct new ones.
The program drew an outpouring of opposition from merchants when it was unveiled last year, but council members said they believe it has been generally accepted by the public.
Carol Patton, a member of the Placerville Downtown Association's parking committee who endorsed the parking program from the outset, argued against suspending Saturday enforcement.
"We don't need parking back in the media again," she said.
Council members were unanimous in calling for Monday-Saturday enforcement to continue, at least through the end of the year.
Mayor Mark Acuna said the program has accomplished much of what the council hoped it would.
Paid parking has resulted in more frequent turnover of parking spaces along Main Street, he said. Increased parking revenue has allowed the city to better maintain its parking facilities, as well as sidewalks in the Main Street area, he said.
"One of the reasons I supported this long ago was just because we would be able to do the needed maintenance," he said.
City Manager Driscoll said most of the revenue increase is the result of an increase in the number of leased parking spaces. To avoid time limitations and hourly parking fees, merchants and their employees may lease spaces in the parking structure and city lots.
Revenue from leased parking in 2006 was in the $20,000 to $25,000 range, Driscoll said. With the new permit system, he said, the city anticipates annual revenue of more than $140,000.
Daily parking revenue has developed slowly, running about $3,000 per month during the first several months and increasing over the summer to about $4,400 in August, he said. The city is using the money to fund enforcement, and acquiring and operating the pay stations. About $14,000 also has been spent to power-wash the three-story parking structure, including stairwells, walls and ceilings.
