UPDATE: Facing Public Opposition, Council to Decide Whether to Move Forward on Paid Parking

Update 6:01 p.m.: The story has been updated to reflect the number of signatures collected by local resident John Lynch on the petition against paid parking.

Despite what appears to be widespread opposition among local residents and downtown business owners to a paid parking program in downtown Half Moon Bay, the city will hold a special meeting on Tuesday which could end in a decision by the council to move forward with the process of formally selecting a vendor for paid parking stations.

The city first broached the idea of a downtown paid parking program at a in October of last year. Since the second held by the city on Feb. 27 which attracted approximately two dozen downtown business owners — most of whom spoke out strongly regarding concerns about potential negative impacts on their business from customers and local residents who would rather not pay for parking — city staff have conducted more research on a range of potential revenue and cost scenarios for a paid parking program with hourly parking rates between $1.50/hour to $2.00/hour.

In the meantime, residents have attempted to take matters into their own hands to pressure the city to stop the paid parking program. Last week, Half Moon Bay resident Charles Hoelzel and the Cañada Cove Home Owner Association began circulating a petition against paid parking, while others expressed interest in taking the petition to the streets to obtain signatures.

Local resident John Lynch reported on Monday that he has collected more than 300 signatures.

"It's been easy and the overall feeling is that the city is off base on this issue," he wrote in an email. "Many [petition] signers state that they will be at the meeting."

The city of Half Moon Bay has not specified what, if any, decisions the council will make tomorrow on whether to implement a paid parking program. At the Feb. 27 meeting, when presenting parking occupancy surveys conducted over the last year in Half Moon Bay, city paid parking program consultant Leslie Parks told the assembled business owners that a final decision had not been made on whether to implement paid parking, and that staff would present more findings and recommendations to councilmembers on Tuesday's meeting.

City staff are recommending that councilmembers make the following decisions on Tuesday:

• Reach consensus on paid parking program parameters, including hourly rate, days of week, and time limits
• Establish priority goals on paid parking program to guide the process of hiring a vendor (through a formal Request for Proposals) for the installation of parking meters
• Direct staff to issue a Request for Proposals for a parking station vendor  and prepare a detailed work plan for city staff to manage the parking program (budget with revenues, expenditures, staffing, new policies needed for implementation)
• Establish timeline to implement paid parking program 

Based on city staff's new scenarios of 28 downtown paid parking stations collecting fees from $1.50/hour to $2.00/hour fee seven days a week (including holidays) from 9 a.m. - 7 p.m., the city says it can expect to bring in between $329,000 - $385,000 per year after initial costs to implement the program have been recouped.

"It is staff's determination that the program should provide at least $325,000 net revenue for the program to be financially viable," wrote Half Moon Bay Finance Director Jan Cooke in the staff report.

According to staff report estimates (see PDF document in media box at right), it would take three years to recoup costs at $1/hour. During this third year, annual revenue is expected to "stabilize" at $187,250. Charging $1.50 or $2 an hour would shave off a year to recoup the startup costs, the city says.

City staff estimate one-time costs to implement the program as $530,772.

Ongoing annual costs — which include parking station maintenance and collections, parking enforcement, and a parking fine management system, were estimated in the city staff report as ranging between $298,000 to $311,000.

Included in the list of ongoing annual costs is a $20,000 to power tree lights on Main St. — an item the city listed in the staff report as a benefit for businesses after electrical infrastructure has been installed (estimated cost: $60,000) to power the parking stations. Businesses would be expected to pay the costs to operate the tree lights.

The city based their projections on a 40 percent occupancy of all parking spots in a defined section of the downtown area (Main Street from the Main St. Bridge to Filbert St.; Mill St., Kelly, Miramontes, and Correas St. between Purissima and Johnston St.; and parking lots at Mill St. and City Hall — see staff report for map of area). Occupancy data was collected in downtown Half Moon Bay in May and July of last year.

Still, staff caution that because "behavior prediction is an imperfect science," they cannot be 100 percent sure how residents and visitors will respond to a paid parking program.

Would paid parking deter you from visiting downtown Half Moon Bay? Vote in our poll below and see how Half Moon Bay Patch readers have voted about the issue.

The paid parking program study session is open to the public and will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Ted Adcock Community/Senior Center in Half Moon Bay (535 Kelly St.). A regular City Council meeting will follow. For more details, see the staff report on paid parking in the media box at right.

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