Paid parking restored at downtown Santa Rosa garages after pandemic hiatus

Parking fees at Santa Rosa’s five downtown parking garages are going back into effect after two years of reduced charges as the city looks to recoup revenue and begin to balance its parking fund.

Starting July 1, visitors shopping or dining downtown will have to pay to park in the garages from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. every day, with some exceptions.

Parking will be free for the first hour at all the garages and free on weekends during the holiday season. Parking will remain free on Sundays throughout the year at the Fifth Street and D Street garages.

Visitors had benefited from free parking at the garages during weekday evenings and all day on weekends since 2020.

“All we’re doing is going back to our pre-pandemic policy,” parking manager Chad Hedge said. “We have to return to normal in order to operate and maintain the garages.”

City Hall officials worked with the Downtown Action Organization, which manages the Santa Rosa Downtown District, a taxing entity formed to clean up and promote the city center, to develop the parking plan. The City Council approved the changes on June 21.

Supporters hope the changes will encourage greater use of the underutilized parking garages, which are cheaper on an hourly basis than metered spots. The changes are also meant to provides clarity to motorists so they stay downtown longer without risking a parking ticket at a meter, said Cadance Allinson, executive director of the Downtown Action Organization.

Garage rates, which range from 50 cents per hour to $1 per hour depending on the location, aren’t expected to increase.

No changes are planned at meters or at surface parking lots.

But respondents to an online query this week from The Press Democrat about the restored parking fees were none too pleased with the council’s decision. They said they would avoid visiting the area, especially as the cost for gas and other goods increase and because other cities across Sonoma County provide free parking.

Some of the region’s bustling downtowns, like Sonoma, don’t charge for parking but many others, including Healdsburg, do charge for street parking beyond one or two hours. In city garages in San Francisco, the hourly charge can run as high as $7 depending on the location and time of day.

Santa Rosa temporarily waived or reduced fees at meters and garages at the onset of the pandemic to provide relief to downtown businesses and visitors.

There are roughly 4,500 parking spaces downtown, including about 2,800 spaces in five parking garages, nearly 700 across nine surface lots and about 1,000 metered parking spaces.

The city reduced the hourly price of metered on-street parking in some areas and implemented free parking at the garages between 5 p.m. and 6 a.m. Monday through Friday and all day Saturdays and Sundays.

The city also partnered with Passport Parking mobile app to offer customers one free meter parking session up to $3.15 in value.

Reduced meter fees expired at the end of 2020 but the city extended other waivers through this summer.

Alan Alton, Santa Rosa’s chief financial officer, told the City Council that the city decided to reinstate the garage fees because it wasn’t sustainable to extend the waivers long-term. The parking enterprise fund has been operating at a deficit the past few years and is projecting a deficit of nearly $1.9 million in fiscal year 2022-2023, according to city budget documents.

The fund pays for operation and maintenance of the city’s public parking, including the garages, and for capital improvements to the city’s parking assets.

The changes largely restore garage parking rules to what they were prior to the pandemic and provide consistency across the five garages, Alton said.

Prior to the pandemic, fees varied between garages with the Seventh Street and First Street garages providing the first hour free while the others didn’t.

In addition to the one-hour free parking, the city will make its holiday parking program permanent. Visitors can park in the garages for free on weekends between the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, known as Small Business Saturday, and New Year’s Day, continuing a program the city started in 2017.

Alton said it’s “very popular” and making it permanent eliminates the need to ask for council approval each year and allows businesses to prepare for the winter shopping season.

The city anticipates losing $175,000 in garage parking revenue annually with the implementation of the free one-hour parking and free weekend holiday programs, Alton said.

But long term, the city hopes the programs can help parking fund revenues return to pre-pandemic level by encouraging more people to take advantage of garage parking and stay downtown for longer periods, he said.

“It’s one of those things where I think we need to give a little to hopefully get a lot back,” Alton said. “It will provide the necessary continuity in our charges, it will provide stability, it’s something both the city and the DAO and the businesses can promote, so we thought it was good to move forward.”

Readers responding to The Press Democrat query said raising fees would make them think twice about going downtown. Some said they already steer clear of the city center and opt to drive to Healdsburg, Sebastopol or Petaluma, where there is free limited-time parking or free parking in some city-owned lots.

Santa Rosa resident Cheryl King said she would visit less often if she had to pay more to park. One reader, who lives in Forestville, joked they would rather walk than pay parking fees and would avoid shopping downtown.

Others like Steve Cavalli said there shouldn’t be any paid parking.

“You want people to come to downtown to shop? Kill the pay meters and you will see an increase in traffic there,” Cavalli wrote.

Santa Rosa resident Jonathan Garza said while he didn’t personally mind the fees he knows others may not have the means to pay the fees along with other rising costs. The reduced and free parking programs should remain in place until there is more activity downtown, Garza said.

“Restaurants are closing left and right downtown, we need some stability before adding a known barrier to people coming out and enjoying our great downtown area,” Garza wrote.

Allinson, of the downtown business group, recognized that parking can be a polarizing issue but said the new program provides consistent rules that make it easy for visitors to park downtown and benefits businesses.

Making the first hour free parking universal across the garages helps businesses better market garage parking to customers and benefits both retailers that are mostly open during the day and restaurants that are open at night, she said.

Some businesses validate parking beyond the free hour, too, she said.

Garage parking is fairly cheap and people can park all day at the garage for no more than $10 without worrying about running out to add money to the meter or risking a ticket, she said.

Allinson said while parking in other cities might be free there is limited space and it can be hard to find parking during peak hours. The ample parking downtown helps support the workforce during the day and makes it easy for people to come for dinner or events without having to circle the block for an open spot, she said.

That’s especially important as events return to Old Courthouse Square and new venues, such as The Lost Church and The California theater, open downtown, she said.

“This is a good step,” she said. “We really appreciate the parking district’s willingness to listen, research and continue the conversation about parking garages.”

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.