City Council unanimously rejects proposal to enforce parking
limits
Gilroy – Pressure from downtown businesses, residents and workers has convinced city leaders to scrap plans to enforce two-hour parking limits in the area.
On Monday, City Council members unanimously rejected a proposal to enforce parking limits from 7am to 6pm, Monday through Saturday, along a two-block stretch of Monterey and Eigleberry streets.
Originally meant to keep spaces open for shoppers during a year of major downtown construction, the proposal inspired a backlash of e-mail and phone complaints to council members.
“We have customers, residents, store owners all saying ‘Give me special privileges or don’t do anything at all,’ ” Councilman Craig Gartman said. “In hearing that, I say that these are the people that have to live with that situation. Let them work it out for themselves without government getting involved.”
Councilmen rejected a last-ditch compromise to keep parking lots off Eigleberry Street as unrestricted spaces while enforcing two-hour limits on the streets. The proposal or some variation thereof could return in June, when council plans to reassess the downtown parking situation.
By then, Monterey Street will be in the middle of a year of major construction. The work will require closing both lanes of the road between Fourth and Sixth streets for improvements. When complete, the two-block stretch will include a freshly paved road with additional parking, wider sidewalks, and new street lamps and trees. In the meantime, the area will lose 83 parking spots, forcing downtown shoppers and workers to compete for a dwindling number of spaces.
Slapping the potential for $30 tickets onto that situation would only make things worse, according to Cerinity Ortiz, a 19-year-old barista at Sue’s Coffee Roasting Company.
Ortiz, who parks right outside the corner coffee shop at Fifth and Monterey streets, agreed with council’s decision to shelve enforcement plans. She argued that employees require easily accessible parking more than shoppers.
“For employees it’s hard because we need to park there for a number of hours and aren’t able to move our cars around,” Ortiz said. “I’m not going to walk down a street and an alley to get my car.”
Other downtown stakeholders took the opposite view, saying storefront parking should be reserved for customers.
“I definitely would prefer to have seen some parking enforcement,” said Bruce Ganzler, owner of Garbo’s Antique Mall. “I think they should have done it a long time ago … There are a lot of people that go downtown and take up the parking spots all day.”
Parking enforcement is a dead issue for the moment, but employees, residents and shoppers will one day have to deal with some type of restrictions. Following the 10-month renovation of Monterey Street, scheduled for completion in October, the city will conduct a detailed parking study that could lead to parking meters, meter maids or some other type of enforcement.
In the meantime, Mayor Al Pinheiro and city council have ditched efforts to craft a plan with mass appeal.
Said Pinheiro: “We’re trying to please everyone, and we’re not going to please anyone.”
