Santa Rosa ponders changes to parking rates, rules

<p>Santa Rosa's parking meters, rates and policies — among the least popular issues for citizens — will take center stage Wednesday.</p><p>Downtown business owners, workers, shoppers and visitors are invited to a 90-minute discussion of those issues at a city-sponsored meeting that begins at 10:30 a.m. at the downtown library at Third and E streets.</p><p>Deputy Parking Director Cheryl Woodward said the discussion will focus on proposals that could result in establishing higher parking rates for more popular locations and lower rates for least popular ones, extending meter hours to take advantage of night events and spending some of the extra revenue on improvements within the area the money is collected.</p><p>“Maybe rates should be higher on Fourth and Fifth streets and lower as you move away from the downtown's core. And maybe parking rates should start at 10 a.m. rather than 8 a.m. and end at 8 p.m rather than 6 p.m.,” Woodward said.</p><p>She said that at the meeting participants will be asked “to take maps of the downtown and color in what meter rates should look like in various areas of the downtown.”</p><p>She said the meeting's goal “is to see if there are any points of agreement we can take back to the City Council” for possible implementation.</p><p>No time frame to do that has been set, she said.</p>