Town rejects paid parking part of proposed parking management plan
Overflow crowd warns that town will lose its character
Council goes with crowd 4-1
By Dale Bryant
Some 250 people packed into Town Hall Chambers for the July 17 public hearing on the parking-management plan. Although some speakers addressed the varied elements of the plan, including its ability to create a revenue stream for a parking garage, plans for handling employee parking and permit parking in the Edelen and Almond Grove neighborhoods, in the end, what it boiled down to was paid parking.
Most of those in the overflow crowd didn't want it, and the council heard them loud and clear, voting down the paid-parking component of the plan 4-1 with Mayor Steve Blanton dissenting.
Those who had worked for six months to put a plan in place that would be acceptable to the downtown business community, residences and churches were disappointed at the announcement at the beginning of the meeting that parking consultant Tim Ware was stuck at the Denver airport and could not make his planned presentation.
Rex Morton, who has served as chairman of the Parking Commission for 12 years, said after the meeting, "I had a premonition when Tim Ware didn't show up, it was over." Morton believes the consultant, who implemented a similar pay and display parking program in Aspen, Colo., would have answered questions that came up during the public hearing that were left unresolved, suggesting there were no reasonable answers.
Tom Boyce, who chaired the Downtown Parking Community Task Force, told the council, "In January, those of us in the neighborhoods were packing the chambers because we were tired of being a parking lot for downtown shoppers. You told us to go back and find a solution that would be a community solution." Boyce talked about the six months of meetings and the compromises. "None of us got what we wanted, but we can live with it," he said.
Steve Zientek, a Tait Avenue resident and former parking commissioner, told the council, "This is the one and only plan that has broad-based support."
But, even though the plan did have broad-based support among the diverse communities who had worked together to hammer it out, many Los Gatans spoke against it, taking exception mostly to paid parking, but also to permit parking.
Some objected to the concept that residents of the Edelen and Almond Grove neighborhood should enjoy permit parking on streets maintained by public dollars. The concept was described by one speaker as an "elitist plan."
Parishioners of St. Mary's Church were particularly vocal in their criticism of permit parking. Phil Micciche, who represented the St. Mary's community told the council that the community was completely opposed to the plan but that after he met with Police Chief Larry Todd,
who staffed the parking committee, to work out a
compromise, he thought St. Mary's would support it.
"I felt like a union leader who agrees and then has to go back to his membership for a vote. I got voted down."
The Rev. Justin Zawadzki, St. Mary's pastor, told the council, "Most people at St. Mary's agree that some type of paid parking is needed. Our problem is that the current plan won't let us park."
More than anything, though, speakers opposed paid parking. Over and over, they said it would destroy the character of the town. Some spoke of paid parking as the step that would turn Los Gatos from a town to a city.
There were also calls for modifications of the parking-management plan as presented. Many spoke on behalf of sparing the Los Gatos Cinema from paid parking either by offering town-sponsored parking validation or by ending parking restrictions after 6 p.m. Jim Zuur, one of the theater's co-owners, said, "We consider the parking plan as it exists now a threat to us."
Debbie Kranefuss, director of the Live Oak Senior Nutrition and Services Center, and Lynnette Vega, who coordinates senior programming for the Los Gatos- Saratoga Department of Community Education and Recreation, appealed for a break for seniors who come to the Neighborhood Center for Wednesday meals and programs. Both paid parking and time limits on street parking would be problematic for their clients, the two said.
Even the Town of Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce did not make an outright endorsement of the parking-management plan, but instead, in a statement read by Chairwoman Diane McNutt, took the position that the Chamber does not oppose the concepts of paid parking or permit parking as long as various criteria were met, including reasonable parking options for employees.
When it came time to vote, it was only paid parking that the council addressed. Later, said that it was not the council's intent to drop the parking management proposal, but only to deal with the paid parking element that night because that was the date set for approving the concept in order to get the system up and operating by fall and the holiday shopping season.
"Staff is putting together possible dates for a worksop," Blanton said. "It will definitely be a public meeting. We have a lot of energy right now and it would be a shame to lose that."
Councilman Randy Attaway, a longtime foe of paid parking, said he had sat on councils where the subject had come up and been voted down 3-2. He said he expected the vote this time might be 3-2 in favor.
But it quickly became clear that the negative response from the overflow crowd had made an impact. Councilwoman Linda Lubeck, who has been an outspoken proponent of paid parking, surprised everyone by voting no. And Councilman Joe Pirzynski, who had been seen as the tie-breaker, likely to vote in favor, also went with the mood of the crowd.
There was some sentiment in the crowd and on the council for adopting a scaled down version of the plan, or adopting the plan minus paid parking, but Blanton said, "One thing I've learned about solving the parking problem is that it has to be a holistic approach. If you only charge in the parking lots, you drive people to the neighborhoods."
Once the vote was taken, the crowd quickly dispersed, leaving the council to agree that eliminating the paid parking element of the plan did not really address the need for a parking-management plan.
"We've been given a challenge to move forward," Pirzynski said. "We have to come up with something so we don't have overflow into the neighborhoods like we did last Christmas."
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
