Town Council acts on parking options for the downtown in holiday season
Three-hour session was all it took for resolution
Edelen decision on hold
By Nathan R. Huff
Los Gatos' town council did more to address downtown parking concerns in three hours on Aug. 28, than it had done in the past three years. The council adopted a slew of staff and community recommendations to deal with the impending holiday parking crunch.
Among the adopted measures are: paving the Miles Avenue lot, creating angled parking in various locations, adding signage, resurfacing town Lots 1 and 2, valet parking in Lot 4 for customers and employees, and increasing the hours of parking enforcement.
The council delayed making a decision on several of the more difficult, expensive and volatile proposals. Those included opening the Edelen neighborhood for limited daytime parking, committing to a holiday shuttle system, using the bus depot lot on S. Santa Cruz Avenue, and creating two-hour limits on Tait Avenue south of Bachman and on Wilder.
Interim town manager Les White presented the council with the list of possible measures. Some came from the parking commission, others from speakers at previous parking meetings, still more came from town staff and a few leftovers from the recently defeated paid parking/parking management plan.
"We think these are workable options, a number of which have been suggested by people in the community as well as our own review," White said. Staff's report included both holiday and long-term options, but the council was asked to focus on the short-term aspects to allow the town to begin implementing the adopted proposals immediately.
The predominant sentiment expressed by both the council and the parade of community members who spoke was one of thanks to the town staff for preparing a detailed list of short-term solutions that could be acted on immediately.
Community members also expressed their own opinions on both the long- and short-term solutions. Much of the conversation centered on employee parking, and a number of people expressed opposition to require employees to pay for parking permits.
"I think we ought to look at the employees as an essential part of this town," said resident Dave Flick. Flick, together with Sandy Decker, submitted a plan to better use existing parking resources. "[We should] give them a parking permit as a benefit for working in this town, not a penalty."
Businessman Bill Bacchi agreed, saying that if permits were to be sold, they should be optional. He added that if the holiday plan included strict enforcement--which is often aimed at long-term employee parking--the town needed to provide alternatives.
"Any plan not inclusive of everyone is not in the public interest," Bacchi said. "Do not penalize employees or residents or visitors by stricter enforcement unless you provide viable alternatives."
Everyone agreed that getting a firm count of the number of downtown employees was critical.
The Town of Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce, which had stopped short of formally endorsing the paid parking plan, also expressed support for a number of the staff proposals.
The Chamber reiterated its support to open University Avenue in the Edelen neighborhood to some form of daytime parking. Town attorney Orry Korb said that, contrary to what the council had thought, the town could allow parking on University Avenue on a temporary basis without the need to do a new environmental study. Since Old Town had officially met its parking requirements, Korb said, the town was free to control street parking. However, if the council chose to open up street permanently, a new environmental study would be required.
The point was moot, as the council decided not to take any quick action on the matter. The same was true for creating the two-hour limits on portions of Tait and Wilder avenues. Council members did say they were open to both ideas, but there was a consensus that no action should be taken until both neighborhoods had a chance to speak on the matter.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
