By Camas Frank ~
The question asked in metropolitan malls across the country as a solution to the scarcity of convenient parking may soon be on the lips of more visitors to SLO’s Downtown.
“Do you validate parking?”
The City of SLO’s Parking Services Division estimates that as of February there were 700 parking validation tokens in circulation, sold to local merchants.
That was seven bundles of 100 sold at $60 a box, and the City doesn’t have a record of who bought them, but the typical merchant to supply validation to the public are upscale restaurants open for lunch. That’s the peak period during which would be patrons are likely to avoid coming downtown to eat if they’re opposed to paying $3 on one of street side meters.
The City already tempts visitors into the three public parking garages downtown with the promise of one hour free parking and now $1 an hour after that. With the tokens – some stickers are also in circulation – a restaurant patron could get two hours “free” parking in one of the structures. The tokens cannot be used in meters.
Since Downtown merchants can buy validation from the City is a 40% discount on the rate normally charged, the City also encourages their use as an employee incentive program.
Although wider adoption of the validation program by merchants may solve the issue temporary issue for customers, the loss of three downtown lots to major development projects, means still fewer options for drivers who find themselves squeezed out of the three available structures.
While a parking use study presented to the SLO City Council on Jan. 19 showed that out of 2582 parking spaces 1,730 vehicles regularly occupied a space, leaving approximately one-third of the public parking supply empty at any given time – that was before the lot closures – the primary issue is convenience and price of the remaining stock.
Most of the Downtown developers have paid in lieu fees to the parking division instead of developing their own garages to offset their own traffic generation.
Some of that money goes towards the final construction of another structure, which the Council has already approved, between Palm and Nipomo.
The complete design has yet to be finalized but 400 additional spaces are slated at an estimated $23.6 million.
The price of parking in the structures already has risen from $75/Hour to $1/Hour after the first hour with the 222 credit card capable meters from the closed lots being redistributed. For the convenience of using a card, drivers pay $0.25 more per hour in zones where those meters are used.
For links to updated parking maps and rate information go to: slocity.org/parking.