by Peter Gauvin
The colors to watch out for when parking in downtown Palo Alto will continue to be coral, lime, blue and purple for at least the next year.
Despite a few flaws, the color-zone parking system has met the goal of reducing "sleeper parking" (employees who shuffle their cars between two-hour spaces) and freeing up more parking for downtown customers during its one-year trial, the City Council agreed Monday.
"I've heard nothing but glowing reports from my customers and constituents," said Council member Micki Schneider, who owns the Spirals art shop on University Avenue.
The Council unanimously extended the program, which was to expire on March 16, for another year--with some minor tweaking.
To help address complaints from drivers who repark in the same color zone for less than two hours total but get slapped with a $20 ticket anyway, 30 to 40 more 30-minute (green curb) spaces will be added that will be exempt from the restricted zones, said City Traffic Engineer Ashok Aggarwal.
That will allow people to repark in the same zone to run short errands. Of the 309 complaints the city received over the past year, 87 percent concerned the reparking problem. In order to minimize the abuse of 30-minute zones, staff will recommend in a few months that the fee for violations be upped to $30.
Because there is still a "parking deficit" of about 1,000 spaces, Council members expressed strong support for moving as quickly as possible toward construction of one or more parking structures. Each structure would cost in the range of $5 million to $8 million and provide 400 or 500 spaces, Aggarwal said. However, it is very unlikely anything could be built within three years.
In addition to stepped up education efforts about permit parking over the next year, the Council also heartily supported creating a position for a downtown commute coordinator to promote alternative transportation options.
Minor opposition to the color zones came from residents of adjoining neighborhoods, like Patrick Burke of the University South Neighborhoods Group. He said many residents can't park in front of their homes anymore because the color zones have forced more employees onto their streets. Indeed, city surveys found that nonresidential parking in the neighborhoods has increased.
Thus, the Council directed city staff to work with the neighborhoods to identify the level of interest in a residential permit parking system and return later this year.
Burke said the city should consider installing parking meters and spoke of the cost-effectiveness of bike parking compared to the current cost to the city for auto parking--$17,000 a space. "The joke is it's easier t find a parking space downtown than a bike rack," he said.
Back up to the Table of Contents Page