Council drops its three-hour holiday parking time limits

Almond Grove neighbors want parity with Edelen

By Nathan R. Huff

What was to be a simple matter of deciding whether to scrap the three-hour holiday time limits on downtown lots turned into a series of testimonials from frustrated neighbors of the central business district.

In the end, the council agreed to return the lots to their pre-holiday all-day status and to change the timing on the pre-existing three-hour areas back to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

More importantly in the eyes of all parties involved, the council directed the Parking Commission to begin discussions with the business community and residents of the Edelen, Almond Grove and other downtown neighborhoods. The council on Feb. 28 will hold a special study session with the Parking Commission, business representatives and downtown neighborhood residents to try to develop a fair solution to an ever-increasing problem: Where can downtown employees park?

Residents of the Almond Grove area attended the Jan. 3 meeting to petition the town to grant their neighborhood a 24-hour permit parking restriction, as the Edelen area of University Avenue has. Person after person stood before the council to speak out on the effects the three-hour limits had on their ability to find parking in front of their homes during the past holiday season.

"We didn't buy a home in a commercial district, and to use our neighborhood as a commercial parking lot is a great disservice to us," Tait Avenue resident Kathy Griffin told the council.

Walter Price, a resident of Wilder Avenue, submitted a petition of 50 names demanding 24-hour permit parking. "We're the ones with a 30-year stake in this," Price said.

Residents complained about having to clean up litter, double-park to unload groceries and children, and fight one another for parking spaces.

The Los Gatos Town Chamber of Commerce admitted that Almond Grove bore an unfair share of the holiday parking. Executive Director Sheri Lewis thanked residents for their "suffering," while reminding the council that the three-hour limits that pushed so many employees into the neighborhoods were only part of the Chamber proposal, the other half being the opening up of the Edelen area.

Taking the audience back to the October council meeting, Lewis said that when the council refused to consider opening Edelen, the Chamber was faced with a difficult decision. "It was not a good solution, it was not an easy solution," Lewis said, "but it was the only one that presented itself."

The Chamber would not support 24-hour permit parking, but Lewis said a more equal relationship between the different downtown neighborhoods would go a long way in mitigating the problem. "It wouldn't have been the problem it was in Almond Grove if there had been equity to begin with," Lewis later said.

The council agreed that reopening the Edelen neighborhood should be part of the overall discussion both at and before the Feb. 28 meeting. Opening the area to daytime parking was suggested by the Chamber and the Parking Commission in October, but council members refused, saying Edelen had suffered enough from the rebuilding of Old Town.

Councilwoman Linda Lubeck noted that the October meeting wasn't the first time the council had declined to take the Parking Commission's advice. "They've been sending us recommendations for years, and we've ignored them," Lubeck said.

Lubeck later emphasized the need for equity between the neighborhoods in sharing the burden of downtown parking overflow. Lubeck said she supports nighttime permit parking to protect the neighborhoods' peace and quiet, but 24-hour restrictions are not the solution.

"People know when they buy the house that they're in a downtown area," Lubeck said. "It's not realistic to expect to have the same level of quiet as someone living in Loma Alta or another similar neighborhood."

Parking Commission Chairman Rex Morton said the large neighborhood turnout was a wakeup call for the council. "We saw pretty good turnover during the holidays, but it was paid for by the Almond Grove district," Morton said.

Among various suggestions brought up by council members and speakers at the meeting were colored, permit-only zones in front of homes, paid parking, and a mandatory shuttle service for employees.

Morton said the bottom line was that there just weren't enough parking spots downtown, and while a temporary fix may be achieved, "changing the recipe but using the same ingredients" would not result in a long-term solution.

"Hopefully," Morton said, "the council will quickly arrive at a program to build the parking structures."

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