July 31, 2002     Los Gatos, California Since 1881 New zoning to transform downtown parking By Gloria I. Wang With the town's new zoned approach to parking, downtown employees and customers will no longer be able to move their cars two spaces away when their time limits expire. Instead, they must go to one of six entirely different zones to avoid receiving a ticket. Or, employees can purchase employee permits and park in certain lots for an unlimited amount of time. That's just one part of Los Gatos' downtown parking management plan—which the town council approved last August—that Los Gatans will face in the immediate future. The six zones—colored and named melon, pecan, berry, olive, peach and plum—cover the entire parking management area. Five of the zones are in the N. Santa Cruz Avenue and University Avenue vicinity, while one zone is on E. Main Street, around Los Gatos High School and the civic center. That "olive zone," unlike the others, has 90-minute parking restrictions on weekdays to discourage high school students from taking public spaces. The olive zone is considered a pilot program and should be completed in November. "Zoned parking encourages rotation and open spaces for customers and visitors," said Carol Musser, parking coordinator with the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department, at the July 15 town council meeting. Musser emphasized, however, that residential permit parking will not be affected by the zones. "Anyone who holds a residential permit has totally unlimited parking at all times," Musser said. Another big change as part of the plan is the new time limit for downtown parking. Currently, parking is restricted from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The town proposed extending the evening limit to 9 p.m., but downtown merchants were concerned that it would keep customers away. People who wanted to eat dinner and then watch a movie would have to move their cars around in between, Musser said. As a result, parking will become unrestricted at 7 p.m. The parking consultant had also suggested that the town lease the little-used Verizon and Los Gatos post office parking lots on S. Montebello Way for public use. The contract was signed last month and now the town is in the design phase for the lots. According to Musser, an additional 80 or 90 parking spaces will come from that area. At the town council meeting, Councilman Steve Blanton asked if the police department would consider writing out courtesy citations in the beginning of the implementation instead of actual tickets. "I think you always feel good when you get a courtesy citation, as opposed to stomping away and cursing when you get a real citation," Blanton said. Musser agreed and said she was planning a "grace period" for a time, where the parking control officers will leave courtesy citations and copies of the new parking brochure and map on the cars. All the work for the plan will be minimized during the holiday season. If any work is done at that time, Musser said, it will be kept out of the core shopping areas and more on the periphery. Musser said the new parking management plan is "truly significant." "The goal is to have more available parking throughout the day that will meet the individual needs of everyone—it's visitors, businesses, residents, students and employees. And Los Gatos is unique with the mix of so many needs in such a small area," Musser said.