The ordinance would affect the North F Street Lot, South G Street Lot and the Amtrak Train Depot Lot.
DAVIS, Calif. — The Davis City Council on June 16 approved the first reading of an ordinance expanding paid parking to three additional downtown lots, while lowering the proposed initial rate from $3 an hour to $1 following public comment and council discussion.
Public Works Engineering and Transportation Director Ryan Chapman presented the proposal to amend the downtown metered parking ordinance. The changes would affect the North F Street Lot, the South G Street Lot and the Amtrak Train Depot Lot. The E Street Parking Lot is already metered.
The action comes as part of the Downtown Parking Management Plan approved by the City Council in 2014. The plan included converting lots to metered parking, among other actions, but the metered parking component was largely left unenacted.
The changes would bring metered parking in the downtown area to 16% of the total available parking. Chapman shared benefits of metered parking beyond fiscal reasons.
“It’s not just a revenue scenario,” Chapman said. “It’s really designed to help us increase turnover and space availability. The goal being that with some of these higher priority lots, we’re able to turn spaces over a little quicker; increase retail foot traffic, increase the vibrancy downtown and the ability for people to find parking when they are looking for it.”
Paid parking may be beneficial for turnover in priority lots, but it raises questions for small businesses in the downtown area, especially for workers who rely on free parking during their shifts.
The initial proposal, as indicated, set the hourly rate at $3 an hour, but after discussion and public comment, the council decided to propose a resolution to initially set it at $1 an hour.
Among those who gave public comment were Kevin Wan, Trish Price and Michael Shearer.
Kevin Wan, a local business owner and president of the Downtown Davis Business Association, spoke in support of the metered parking proposal but urged council members to move slowly through the process.
“On behalf of DDBA, I want to share our support in converting several of these free parking lots to paid parking,” Wan said. “We believe it’s important to take a measured approach. DDBA supports starting with a lower rate of one dollar an hour and treating this as a phased implementation.”
Wan also offered ideas for future adjustments as the program continues.
“We’d also encourage the city to consider time-of-day pricing so rates can better reflect actual demand,” Wan said. “Some periods are much busier than others and a more flexible system may ultimately serve both visitors and businesses better. We also believe that if parking rates do increase — and they probably will over time — the additional revenue should be directly invested into the downtown area.”
Trish Price, representing Bike Davis, supported the proposal.
“There really is no such thing as free parking,” Price said. “We are all subsidizing downtown parking whether we use that parking or not … Research shows that walkable commercial spaces do much better — financially — than spaces that are inaccessible because of car traffic.”
Michael Shearer, a Davis resident since 1996, spoke against the change.
“If you continue these practices of making it harder to shop in downtown Davis, the customers will leave,” Shearer said. “A lot of them already have. They go to Woodland where there’s free parking and big box stores where they can get everything they need.”
The council continued its discussion after public comment concluded, focusing largely on pricing and the ease with which consumers could pay.
The proposal continued use of the T2 system, which is currently used by parking enforcement. Concerns arose over ease of use and the customer interface with the T2 system, prompting discussion of potential options that would incorporate a mobile app interface.
T2 is a parking, mobility and transportation provider that offers license plate recognition, citation services and pay stations, among other services.
Police Chief Todd Henry then spoke via Zoom about the parking enforcement team’s use of the T2 system.
“The entire parking system is built around T2, including the digital marking through LPR,” Henry said. “[The system] would be a touchpad kiosk, so no cash, it would be all cashless but you could walk up to the kiosk in the parking lot and touch with Apple Pay or credit card. There would also be signs with a QR code so you could pull out your camera, navigate to the site, make your payment and you’re good to go. The other option that is included with that too, would be that if you did receive a parking citation, you can start an account through T2 and you can pay your parking citation on site.”
Councilmember Linda Deos maintained concerns about continuing with the T2 system.
“The reviews that I’ve been reading about T2 are that it’s clunky to use for consumers and I just want to get away from that,” Deos said. “I think it’s really important for us to look at the ease of use for our residents.”
After further discussion, the council passed a motion to introduce the ordinance with changes proposed by the city attorney and, through a separate resolution, impose fees of $1 an hour at all four metered parking lots.
The changes remove pricing from the ordinance itself and allow rates to be set by resolution, which was included as the second part of the motion.
The council also agreed with City Manager Daryel Dunston to return with potential alternatives to the T2 system.
For more information, the City Council website is available online. The next City Council meeting is scheduled for July 7.
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“’It’s not just a revenue scenario,’ Chapman said. ‘It’s really designed to help us increase turnover and space availability.'”
When they say it’s not about the money you know it’s about the money.
I was talking with a former CC member and paid parking advocate who was telling me with an app you can buy additional time and not need to move your car after two hours. So how does that increase turnover?
It’s the dedicated Lexus parking lot strategy, similar to our largely empty Lexus dedicated freeway lanes.
I rarely have trouble finding a parking space in the downtown lots when I need one. We’re not at the point where this is required and it will surely hurt our downtown businesses.