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Photograph by Jeff Kearns
Diane McNutt, chairwoman-elect of the Town Chamber, addresses the council.
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Chamber suggestions include paid parking and assessment
By Nathan R. Huff
Los Gatos merchants say they're ready to bite the bullet to get adequate parking downtown, and if that means paying into an assessment district, so be it. That's what Town Chamber of Commerce chairwoman-elect Diane McNutt told the Town Council on Sept. 20.
Adorned with a bright pink sticker reading: "I'd be tickled pink if I could find parking in Los Gatos," McNutt presented results from the Chamber's summer-long effort to come up with funding strategies for a second parking garage. She also addressed short-term options to ease downtown parking, especially for the upcoming holiday season.
Last spring, when the Town Council agreed to pursue the possibility of building two parking garages instead of just one, council members challenged the Chamber to help come up with financing strategies that would make that feasible.
The big turnout of Chamber members, also adorned with bright pink stickers, was evidence that the business organization had picked up the gauntlet. Members spent the past several months talking to business owners and meeting in committees to come up with the Sept. 20 presentation. Bill Bache and Bert Miller pounded the pavement, taking a straw poll of business people to learn how much sacrifice they would be willing to make.
McNutt told the Town Council that the Chamber's straw poll indicates a willingness on the part of downtown businesses to pay into an assessment district. But she also noted that business people believe the burden should be shared by shoppers in the form of paid parking.
Bache later told the Los Gatos Weekly-Times that "The most feasible solution is a partnership with everyone involved."
Paid parking is likely to face an uphill battle with the council, however. While Councilwoman Linda Lubeck agreed that paid parking would probably be necessary to complete two structures, Councilman Randy Attaway strongly disagreed. He argued that the town's character and charm would be undermined by paid parking.
The council elected to review the cost and potential benefit of pay-for-parking--a move Attaway later said represented a "change of philosophy which itself contributes to the taking away of town character."
Council members asked that the Chamber continue its efforts to drum up support for an assessment district of downtown business owners. The Chamber currently has 51 percent of core downtown business owners unofficially signed on. The council would like to see that number upped to 60 percent. The council also asked the Chamber to come back with hard numbers on the fundraising potential of the district.
Council members were clearly impressed by the effort the chamber had put into its report. "They took up the challenge and made a definite statement," said Councilman Joe Pirzynski.
In all, the Chamber came up with 10 action items based on its polling research, including consideration of paid parking, the taking of bids for a possible shuttle service, and employee carpool permits.
The Chamber's support of a town resolution to issue temporary holiday parking permits for downtown employees in the Edelen District drew fire from a number of neighborhood residents.
"We got blindsided by the Edelen reaction," executive director Sheri Lewis said.
Parking Commission chairman Rex Morton also expressed surprise over the reaction, saying an Edelen resident on the commission didn't think her neighbors "would mind at all." Morton later said that he drove up and down University Avenue four times on a recent weekday and found the area "consistently 75 percent open." Facing a crowd of unnerved residents, the council chose not to support the resolution, though they agreed to review it at a later date.
Given the gargantuan size of the program, nothing will be completed overnight, but immediate action will be taken on several of the Chamber's requests. Temporary signs directing holiday tourists and shoppers to parking will be up by mid-October, according to community development director Paul Curtis. The town will also move forward with the production of maps for downtown business owners, showing employees and customers the correct places to park. The Chamber had suggested spending $5,000 on a map "respective to the quality of Los Gatos." Council members were more supportive of a less expensive alternative.
The council directed both the Chamber and town staff to return on Oct. 4 with answers to questions that need more research before action can be taken.
Lewis later praised Mayor Jan Hutchins for the council's organized and methodical discussion on each of the 10 items. "The way Jan handled it will make it very easy for us to respond," Lewis said. "If we don't already have answers, we will put people on it." The Chamber will start taking bids from shuttle service companies and continue working on an employee carpool parking program in preparation for the Oct. 4 meeting.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
