By Theresa-Marie Wilson

Hundreds of thousands of people flock to Pismo Beach every year and the city council would like to see the vacation destination attract even more people, but parking congestion is an ongoing problem.
The council unanimously gave the green light to enter into a contract with Walker Parking Consultants to generate ideas to meet the swelling parking demand. The consulting firm will develop the Downtown Parking Enhancements Plan at the cost of $75,000.
Funding is through the Parking Enterprise Fund, which means the scope of work has to be within the paid parking area downtown. That means a study including other areas of the city would have to come at different time.
The city recently created a new circulation plan that would be a companion piece to Walker’s findings.
“They (Walker) are going to come up with an inventory of the parking space and the occupancy of the parking spaces,” said Community Development Director Jon Biggs. “We are going to have two sets of data, two separate times of the year to compare against. I think we are getting a good broad range of the parking demand and supply in the downtown.”
The firm will work closely with the city’s parking advisory committee. Walker will conduct one-on-one interviews with stakeholders.
“Not only business owners and property owners in the downtown,” said Biggs. “They will be talking to some of the decision makers in the city and parking advisory members, as advisory to the city council, are going to be key stakeholders that Walker will need to sit down and spend some time with.”
Biggs said the firm has recommended a wide range of sollutions to other cities that include building a parking structure, better management of available parking and improved on-street parking options.
“I sure hope they come up some sort of solution on Pomeroy,” said Councilwoman Shelia Blake. “I was there on Sunday afternoon, and it was chaos. It reminded me a little bit of Beverly Hills. One woman stopped, put on her blinker and waited for a parking space (because) she saw someone getting ready. Traffic stopped all the way up Pomeroy.”
In 2014, the City Council adopted the Pismo Beach Downtown Strategic Plan as a guide to future projects in the hub of the city. The plan included providing “safe and efficient parking opportunities to improve access to businesses, minimize negative impacts to ocean views, and compliment public spaces.”
Two upcoming projects in the downtown core are expected to bring in even more overnighters to the city.
Last year the council approved plans for the The Inn @ Pismo Pier project, a three-story lodging-retail combo venture that would be built on the dirt lot on on Cypress street that is typically filled with parked cars during the city’s extended tourist season.
The project features a 104-room hotel, a 2,000 square-foot convention room, 1,795 square-feet of retail space, an outdoor dining area, a roof-top pool, a fitness center and about a 130-space underground parking garage.
Another hotel project on Stimson is in the permitting chute. It too would include an underground parking garage.
Staff plans to conduct public workshops to gather input about future parking plans.
“I’m afraid that people are getting tired of parking workshops,” said Mayor Shelly Higginbotham. “I’m worried that they are going to get parking fatigue. I know that everybody is interested in it, and businesses certainly have a huge stake. I just hope that we don’t get people tired of meetings.”