In the Works: Possible Changes to Meter Holidays and the Two-Hour Time Limit at the Library Garage

The City Council took steps at a special workshop Monday to address some of the annoying aspects of parking in downtown Walnut Creek and considered broader strategies to create a comprehensive parking plan.

No formal action was taken at Monday's meeting. And, the effort, at this point, generally focuses on these broader issues, such as whether to use the market to set public garage and meter fees.  

Still, the council Monday asked city staff to look at some specifics, such as changing how the city charges for street parking on certain holidays and looking at ways to create more clear signs around private lots.

City Manager Ken Nordhoff also said that the city is looking at whether to change the two-hour time limit in the downtown library underground garage. Walnut Creek Library Foundation board member Bob Brittain pointed out at the meeting----that the two-hour limit discourages people from parking there when when coming to the library because people might want to spend more time there, browsing, reading, studying, using the computers, or looking for jobs.

The result of the two hour limit? A garage that is largely empty on weekdays, with people using the meter-free parking at Civic Park or nearby parking in the Broadway garage. 

The city wants to adopt a plan that makes it easier for people to find parking in downtown Walnut Creek. The strategies over the highly complex—and sometimes emotional—issue of parking in Walnut Creek. 

"We continue to hear from the community that here is a parking problem in downtown," said Community Development Director Sandra Meyer. 

A 2006 study shows that there is an adequate number of parking spaces in downtown, but many who live, work or visit Walnut Creek have the perception that parking is scarce, Meyer has said. City leaders worry that concerns about make people want to shop or dine elsewhere. 

"There is a misalignment between supply and demand," Meyer said. "The parking plan has to realign the supply and demand."

To convince people that parking is in fact available in Walnut Creek improve, city council members agreed to the idea of strategies that involve moving motorists in and out of street parking, or moving them into public and private parking garages--all for the purpose of keeping  around 15 percent of street spaces vacant at one time.  

For example, they greed to the concept of zones for street parking, wherein the meter fees for parking in the downtown core area would be higher than meter fees in outlying areas. No fees were mentioned at the meeting.

Also, council members didn't voice support or opposition Monday for the potentially controversial idea, suggested by the parking task force, of extending meter hours to 10 p.m. daily and to Sundays.

Council members mentioined that they received a letter from the Downtown Business Association, saying that it supports the idea of meter parking for Sundays because it is one of the busiest days of the week for parking and shopping. 

With regard to changing meter holidays, council members agreed to look at making them consistent with federal holidays. Parking meters currently are not enforced on New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. But the fact that parking is enforced on a federal holiday, such as Presidents Day, creates confusion for motorists, said council member Kish Rajan. 

Council members also agreed that the city needs a policy that encourages developers of future projects to create parking management plans for their employees. The task force found that employees of downtown businesses, notably restaurants, are parking in desirable street spaces.  

But this policy probably would not apply to existing developments, such as the private garages at Olympic Place or Plaza Esceula, where the owners of the projects have signed leases with tenants giving them sometimes prime spaces on lower floors to accommodate patrons or valet parking.