City OKs Increase For Parking Meters
New Rate Expected to Net City’s General Fund $2.3M
BY RENE’E BEASLEY JONES
After listening to at least 25 speakers opposed to a parking meter rate increase, the San Diego City Council tentatively approved a hike from $1 to $1.30 an hour and extended the enforcement period by two hours a day.
Many retailers in the 2nd and 3rd Districts , including commercial strips in Downtown, Little Italy, and Hillcrest , opposed City Manager Michael Uberuaga’s proposal to increase parking meter fees. Almost all of the city’s nearly 5,000 meters are in those districts.
Business owners in areas with meters fear a jump in parking rates will drive customers to competitors who offer free mall or street parking.
Bill Keller, who owns Le Travel Store in the Gaslamp District, said his business draws from a large trade area, so customers drive in from neighboring towns and the outskirts of San Diego. They rely on street parking near his store.
“I already face the challenge of getting people to come Downtown to shop,” Keller said of the city’s parking squeeze. “(A rate increase) makes it that much harder … .”
Uberuaga proposed bumping rates to $1.60 in high-density areas like Downtown and $1.20 in neighborhoods where meters received less use. That increase would have raised $2.6 million for a strapped 2004 general fund that’s already taken a $30 million hit.
After subtracting extra costs to patrol meters another two hours a day, the city expects the $1.30-per-hour rate and additional parking fines to net more than $2.3 million.
Councilman Michael Zucchet, who represents the 2nd District, sought a 30 percent hike in rates citywide. It served as a compromise, because Zucchet feared there weren’t enough votes to kill the city manager’s two-tiered proposal, said Don Mullen, Zucchet’s senior policy adviser. The 60 percent jump would affect a high number of businesses in Zucchet’s district.
“Hopefully, this won’t have as great an effect on business as the 60 percent would have had,” Mullen said. “There’s no getting away from the down side of any increase in meter fees.”
Teresa McTighe, executive director of the Gaslamp Quarter Association, said businesses were pleased the per-hour rate was reduced.
“Still, a 30 percent increase is quite a jump,” McTighe said. “If anything increases 30 percent people aren’t pleased.”
Retailers are perhaps more concerned about extending meter hours from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., she said.
Tom Schutz, co-owner of the Cheese Shop on Fourth Avenue in the Gaslamp District, is glad customers won’t face $1.60 an hour to park near his store.
“But ($1.30) still seems a little steep to me. It seems to me that maybe this is a step backwards in making people want to work, live, and play Downtown,” Schutz said.