Los Gatos Weekly-Times


Jan Hutchins	Steve Blanton

Partial solution may put a dent in an expected parking logjam

By Clarence Cromwell

Downtown parking relief is just up the road for Los Gatos. The first step toward a parking cure was taken July 7, when the Town Council decided to allow for paid parking and valet parking on private lots downtown--if fees are enacted on town lots.

The ordinance won't put fees in place anywhere immediately, but it looks like the first movement on the parking crisis in months, and it comes when the town is on the brink of a long-term shortage of parking.

Old Town shopping center will close down its 105-space University Avenue lot this month to begin construction of a new building, a move expected to escalate the misery level for downtown shoppers and employees. When construction is finished, Old Town is expected to draw hundreds more cars than before, but won't add any new parking spaces.

Councilmembers Steve Blanton and Jan Hutchins met, as a subcommittee on parking, to figure out how the town should deal with the parking crunch during Old Town's construction.

The two on July 7 recommended adoption of an ordinance that will let private-property owners charge for parking or for valet services only if the town starts up such services. And although the council hasn't decided yet whether the town wants to charge for parking, Hutchins and Blanton are urging other councilmembers to turn loose market forces on the problem by enacting the fees or by changing the new ordinace to let landowners charge for parking even if the town doesn't.

"We have waited and waited for the perfect solution," Hutchins said. "And now, rather than continue to wait for the perfect solution, I think we ought to move forward with experiments that will let us find solutions that work, whether they're perfect or not. "

Hutchins said a valet parking service could increase a parking lot's capacity by 50 percent; that means the town between Main Street and Elm Street could hold 450 cars instead of the current 300. Hutchins said the increase of 150 spaces, at $2 per car for valet parking, beats any other plan so far: The celebrated second deck of parking at Old Town would have created only 105 spaces at a cost of $1.1 million. The town plan to charge for parking involved installing costly electronic gates and fee-collection machines.

And on top of making sense, valet parking would appeal to the upscale sensibilities of those who shop downtown Los Gatos.

"It's a solution that's less offensive and less intrusive than the old system of paid parking," Hutchins said. "It serves the customer."

Blanton wants to see a plan where property owners are free to charge for parking, even if town lots remain free. "If this is a good idea, why should we ask businesses to wait until the town charges?" he asked.

Blanton added that he'd like to see parking rates set by the market, within reason, rather than by town planning officials, who proposed to limit private parking lots to the same fee as town lots.

Blanton stopped short of calling the plan a solution to the decades-old parking shortage.

"It could be a larger piece of the puzzle," Blanton said, "but I don't think it's the solution in and of itself."

Councilmember Randy Attaway objected to fees on private lots, calling them "a windfall" for private operators.

Attaway said the plan "puts the cart before the horse," since the council previously decided that private lots would only be allowed to charge if the town did so first.

"I'm not convinced that I want to charge for parking spaces in the town of Los Gatos at this time," Attaway said.

But the council followed Hutchins' appeal to take action on the parking problems that night.

"I believe by passing this ordinance, we'll be breaking an existing logjam," Hutchins said.

Blanton pointed out that passage of the ordinance would put fees in place only if the town charged on its own lots. The council can decide later whether it wants to charge on town lots and how much to let private-property owners charge.

Linda Lubeck supported the motion.

[ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ]