SLO residents and businesses are irate about downtown parking. What can be done about it?

Every week, Sandy Richardson and a friend meet for drinks at Scout Coffee in downtown San Luis Obispo.

It’s a nice moment to catch up and chat, but this year the cost of that meet-up rose exponentially when parking rates doubled downtown.

“She gets an iced tea and I get a coffee, and that cost us $4 each — and we pay $8 for the parking,” Richardson told The Tribune. “That seems not OK.”

From increased rates to new apps and gateless technology, San Luis Obispo has made big changes to its downtown parking this year — but those changes have pushed some longtime patrons like Richardson to stop visiting the city core in favor of finding simpler parking situations elsewhere.

“We’re not going to Giuseppe’s or Firestone anymore,” Richardson said of her and her group of friends. “We’re going to House of Bread. I want to support the local people, the local businesses. ... It just seems like (the changes) add an encumbrance that is an overload.”

Meanwhile, downtown business owners say they are bearing the brunt of the burden for the changes.

“It’s just so prohibitive to people when they keep changing things,” Apropos owner Natalie Risner told The Tribune in a recent interview. “I feel like just so much change in such a short amount of time has frustrated people so much that they have now chosen to just not come downtown.”

A coalition of business owners has even formed to push the city to reverse some of its changes ahead of the essential holiday shopping season — or else potentially risk irreparable damage to the downtown economy.

“The city recognizes that new parking rates and other downtown parking changes have been challenging for some community members,” Public Works Director Matt Horn told The Tribune on Thursday. “We all want to support a thriving, vibrant downtown, and we also need to cover the cost in managing and providing public parking services downtown.”

In response to the outcry, the San Luis Obispo City Council is set to discuss its parking policies at a meeting Tuesday night, including talking about the potential to bring back the free hour of parking at local structures.

The City Council could also authorize a parking rate study that would examine if it could reduce its rates in light of unexpected cost savings for the new parking structure now under construction at the corner of Palm and Nipomo streets.

“The city will consider near- and long-term solutions to provide relief for new rates and ensure that parking downtown remains accessible and affordable,” Horn said.

Parking rates increase, new tech introduced in downtown SLO

So what exactly has changed for downtown parking that caused some to avoid what was previously a Mecca for San Luis Obispo shoppers?

First — and perhaps foremost — downtown parking rates doubled in July, going from $1.50 per hour in the structures to $3, and jumping from $2.50 per hour to $4 on the streets.

The City Council approved the rate increase in June 2022 to help pay for the new parking structure, which will provide needed capacity on the west end of downtown in what has become the developing Cultural Arts District. The new San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre will be built adjacent to the structure.

The five-story parking garage has been in development for nearly 20 years, Horn said, and represents a long-term effort by the city to keep up with parking demand in the downtown core.

“If you look at our data, things that we collect from cars coming in and out and using our services, there are more cars coming downtown,” Horn said. “We are selling more parking sessions.”

Horn said between July 1 and Oct. 7 of this year, the city recorded about 150,000 more parking sessions downtown than it had in the same period in 2022 — even in spite of the changes to downtown parking.

Coupled with the incoming Cultural Arts District and several other new developments on that side of downtown, Horn said, “There’s a need currently and into the future for the parking structure.”

At the same time the city increased rates, it also introduced new gateless technology at the 842 Palm St. structure that did away with the traditional ticket and swapped it for virtual payments.

Now instead of paying at the end of your stay in the structure, you pay when you park for however much time you think you need via an app or at one of the structure’s pay stations.

Much of the street-side metered parking had already transitioned to similar app-based payment, but the gateless tech at the Palm Street structure has still caused confusion, Horn said.

“So the change in model has been a challenge for folks in the parking structure,” Horn said. “We’re working through that — although it is identical to what we do on street-side — but as soon as we put it in a parking structure, that’s become a harder bridge to cross.”

To help combat some of that confusion, the city hired “parking ambassadors” to help patrol the structure and walk folks through the process of paying.

Meanwhile, the free first hour of parking in structures — which had long been a staple of the downtown ecosystem — was no longer available unless you signed up for a special locals permit that could only be used at the gateless Palm Street structure.

That program has turned out to be unexpectedly tricky to implement, Horn said, noting that folks have had a hard time registering for the permit as well as figuring out how it works in conjunction with the app-based payment at the parking structure.

“It’s been challenging for everyone,” Horn said. “We were really trying to use a technology package that was not implemented to do a bifurcated payment system like this and make it work for this system. So it’s really the technology is not built to manage parking that way — but we can try to make it work to fit in.”

Since the local permit program’s rollout, Horn said the city has been working to streamline the registration process and try to get the word out on social media channels for how it can be used.

It’s possible the program won’t be around for too long, however.

On Tuesday, Horn said city staff intends to ask the City Council to bring back the universal free first hour of parking at downtown structures, and not just limit it to permit holders at the Palm Street structure.

That would essentially nullify the local permit pilot program.

“There’s a lot of changes that we have been making to improve the parking experience downtown,” Horn said. “But I think as a result of it happening all at once, it’s creating a lot of challenges for community members, businesses and city staff. And so we’re looking at different ways to kind of alleviate those issues both on the near term and kind of longer term.”

Residents upset by expensive, confusing parking changes

In the months since the changes took place, The Tribune has been contacted by various people upset by parking downtown.

In response, The Tribune launched a callout in mid-October, asking local residents and business owners to share their feelings on the changes to parking this year.

More than 150 people responded to the form, sharing a range of opinions on rates, hours, accessibility, technology and the future of the downtown core.

The vast majority of people who responded to the form said parking was now too expensive and made them reconsider whether they would patronize downtown businesses.

“Our whole family stopped dining, shopping and generally hanging out in downtown,” wrote Julie Peinado of San Luis Obispo. “My teen, who just started driving, said that ordering online is more cost effective for her and her friends, who do not have $9-12 extra to spend on parking.”

Peinado added that other local towns have free or less expensive parking, which has made her family visit those areas “more in the last three months than we have in seven years.” She also frequents other shopping centers in the city more often, like Madonna Plaza, because of the free parking.

“(I) used to go to downtown at least 2-3 times a week, now it’s a rare occasion,” Peinado wrote. “Thanks for killing our town.”

Others criticized the payment kiosks and apps, saying they were confusing and “unnecessarily complicated.”

“Parking in this town went from easy and inexpensive, with helpful parking structure attendants, to a total mess,” SLO resident Chrys Barnes wrote. “Something that is simple and straightforward became complicated and very user-UNfriendly for reasons that have no benefit to me as a local citizen.”

Still other respondents noted that the changes make it more difficult to enjoy some of downtown’s unique offerings, such as the library or the Children’s Museum.

“I now dread what used to be a fun, easy and inexpensive outing with my family and kids,” Bobby Boss of San Luis Obispo wrote. “It is funny how something so simple as a few more dollars can make local residents feel mistreated by our city. But I think that is the case with the parking costs.”

Downtown business owners unite to push for changes

Business owners in the area say they in particular are feeling the squeeze from the myriad parking changes — and they’re especially concerned about how they might impact their bottom line during the upcoming holiday season.

“On a Saturday — and it’s happened now on several Saturdays unless there’s some big like Cal Poly Open House or something that’s really driving a lot of out-of-towners to our downtown — if it’s a weekend where I’m depending on my locals, I look out my door in the middle of a Saturday and there’s parking all up and down the street,” Kannyn January, owner of Ambiance SLO on Higuera Street, told The Tribune. “Then you go drive to the Public Market. It’s packed.”

“We’re really discouraging people from coming downtown,” she added.

Even at The Mountain Air and The Switchback on Marsh Street — which have the benefit of a rare private parking lot — co-owner Lindsey Haring said she and husband Josh Haring have noticed that people suddenly seem to be “avoiding downtown as a habit.”

“I do think it was like this significant change with people and friends talking about not wanting to come to restaurants, not wanting to come downtown, because of the parking fees,” she said.

In response, Haring got the idea to write a letter to the City Council, asking it to consider reverting some of its changes to help its local businesses.

Within 24 hours, 40 business owners had signed onto the letter, Haring said. By 48 hours, that number had doubled to more than 80 signatures, including ones from the owners for the Ah Louis Store, Ambiance SLO, Apropos, Ash Management (which owns Bulls Tavern, McCarthy’s, The Library and Frog and Peach), BlackHorse Espresso & Bakery, Blackwater, BooBoo Records, Firestone, Giuseppe’s Cucina Rustica, Junk Girls, Kreuzberg, Linnaea’s Cafe, Luna Red, the Palm Theatre, Scout Coffee, Skipper’s Brew and more.

Downtown SLO business owner... by Kaytlyn Leslie

“The parking rate has been just an additional layer of challenge, and something that it feels like at a time when we are struggling, the city should come alongside — if we are a business-friendly community, if we do want a vibrant downtown — to help locals shop and dine and relax and play downtown,” Haring said.

In the letter, the coalition of business owners said the increase in hourly rates and in hours of enforcement, as well as changes to the free hour program, were “negatively impacting the atmosphere of downtown and consumer spending.”

The letter asked for the City Council to consider reinstating the universal free first hour of parking in all its structures for at least the holiday season, if not permanently. It also asked the council to reduce the hourly rate so that SLO’s parking is comparable to other cities, reinstate Sunday parking hours and end enforcement at 6 p.m. rather than the later 9 p.m. cutoff.

“This is something we have to find a solution for,” Haring said, “If we want a vibrant community of local businesses: If we want BooBoo Records, if we want Giuseppe’s, if we want the Palm Theatre. ... We’re losing support because of this. So if something isn’t done now, we will see more businesses shutter.”

What happens next?

There is some potential good news on the horizon.

The city has recently discovered that it may be taking in more parking revenue than it needs for the Cultural Arts District Structure, Horn said.

That’s in part due to to lower-than-expected construction costs, a lower interest rate and a change in the city’s debt financing model that allows a different kind of debt-to-revenue ratio and asset management levels, Horn said.

This could potentially leave some wiggle room where the city could feasibly adjust its parking rates and policies to ease some of the difficulties customers and business owners are seeing downtown.

At its meeting Tuesday, the City Council has a number of options to choose from to help ease the pain on local residents and businesses, Horn said, including subsidizing the hour of free parking at all structures, reducing daily rates in structures, subsidizing free parking on Sundays or another day of the week or adjusting paid parking times.

Over the long term, the council could also direct staff to look into parking relief programs specifically for downtown employees and programs to improve the user experience for people parking downtown, he added.

“We all want the same things,” Horn said. “We want to be able to provide parking for the community so they can come in and use it. The community wants to be able to use the parking, and we all need to decide on what that fair price is for us to enjoy the downtown together.”

How to comment on SLO parking

The San Luis Obispo City Council will discuss its parking program at its regular meeting Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

The meeting takes place in Council Chambers at 990 Palm St. and can be joined virtually or by phone. For more information on how to view or listen to the meeting, visit the city’s website at slocity.org/government/mayor-and-city-council/agendas-and-minutes.

To comment on the city’s parking policies or on the proposed changes ahead of the meeting, residents can email the City Council at emailcouncil@slocity.org.