The town has hired Corinthian International Parking Services to park customers' and employees' cars for free through Dec. 24. The service is only offered, however, at the lot bordered by Grays Lane and Elm Street, between N. Santa Cruz and University avenues.

The valet service is available to the public from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. The upper level of the parking lot is restricted to short-term parking—four hours or less—and the lower level is for four or more hours.

According to Carol Musser, the town's parking coordinator, if drivers return to their cars after 9 p.m., they can go to the Los Gatos­Monte Sereno Police Department to retrieve their keys, or they can ask for their keys back after their cars are parked.

The service will not be offered on Sundays, with the exception of Dec. 22. "Sunday morning is not a problem at all," Musser said, referring to parking downtown. And, Musser added, people frequent restaurants and stores less on Sunday evenings than other evenings, so valet parking is not necessary on those days.

Musser said, however, that the town is monitoring parking lot use on Sundays. "We'll bring in staff if it's needed," Musser said.

Parking ambassadors, who are usually the police department's Volunteers in Policing, will be on hand most days to direct and help shoppers to appropriate parking spaces.

Musser has coordinated the printing of a "Holiday parking in historic downtown Los Gatos" brochure, which has been distributed to several area businesses. The brochure, Musser said, serves as a "helpful tool" for visitors and has a map that covers N. Santa Cruz and E. Main Street. The map spells out the parking limitations in various lots throughout the downtown area.

The brochure is a marketing effort "to encourage and support businesses in this economic climate during the holiday season," Musser said.

A marked difference between this year's valet parking program and last year's is the length of the service. Last year, valet parking started Nov. 16 and ended Christmas Eve, but data showed that there was no need for the service to start that early. The town conducted parking lot counts that showed "there weren't excess cars where you had to valet them," Musser said.

Another difference is the cost. Musser said the total cost of the program—which includes hiring the valet company, printing the brochures and allocating town staff to monitor the service—will not exceed $30,000. "It covers the entire program—anything that has to do with the holiday valet," Musser said.

Last year, the town budgeted $98,600 for holiday parking. Musser said that although the full amount was not spent, this year the cost will be significantly less because of the shorter service period.

Musser said data from the 2001 program indicates that valet parking created space for 5,000 more cars than the lot's capacity over the five-week run of the service.

For more information, call the police department at 408.354.5257.