Mayor says a flood of complaints has him ready to abandon ship
on downtown enforcement plan
Gilroy – Frustrated with an outpouring of complaints and competing interests, Mayor Al Pinheiro said he is prepared to scrap plans for downtown parking enforcement. But his colleagues on City Council say that may be brash and that downtown stakeholders should come up with parking strategies.
Earlier this month, council signed off on a plan to enforce 2-hour parking limits in the downtown core along Monterey and Eigleberry streets, and in downtown parking lots and on side streets.
The crackdown would allow police to issue $30 tickets to discourage motorists from monopolizing a dwindling number of spaces during a year of major construction along Monterey Street. Intended to help buoy businesses, the policy has only inspired a chorus of complaints from business owners, customers, employees and residents.
A later decision by Council to issue residential parking passes did little to stem the tide of complaints, according to Pinheiro, who said he has received a flood of phone calls from employees and business owners.
“I’m going to suggest to council to forget it – let’s not enforce it at all,” Pinheiro said. “It’s gotten to a point where we’re trying to please everybody and we’re not going to please anybody. If the business owners and employees don’t have the sense to park elsewhere, that will be their problem.”
He said he would formally withdraw the enforcement proposal at the next council meeting on Feb. 27.
“Let the merchants fend for themselves. What’s wrong with that?” said Sue Shalit, owner of Sue’s Coffee Roasting Company on the corner of Fifth and Monterey streets. She opposed plans to enforce parking restrictions from 7am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, in part because it would force employees to walk farther to vehicles at night on streets with poor lighting.
She and other business owners along Monterey Street, between Fourth and Sixth streets, have already lost nearly half the spaces in front of their stores to PG&E crews who are laying new gas lines. When that work is complete in March, the city will shut down the northbound lane of Monterey Street so workers can rip up the road and install new sidewalks and other improvements. The area will lose roughly 83 parking spots during construction, forcing work crews, businesses, residents and employers to jockey for spaces on side roads and parking lots off Eigleberry Street.
Pinheiro has thrown his hands up in frustration over plans to keep those spots turning over, but most of his colleagues think the idea is worth saving.
Councilman Russ Valiquette said “we maybe rushed into it a little bit.”
He received complaints from elderly residents who participate in bowling leagues at Gilroy Bowl, in the heart of the downtown construction area. Two-hour parking limits could create major headaches and expenses for seniors who bowl during the weekdays, Valiquette said.
He also worried that the city has not fully thought out how it would enforce parking restrictions. Originally, city officials said police officers assigned to the downtown area would issue citations, but Valiquette said that could mean taking an officer off his beat or racking up additional overtime costs.
“We shouldn’t scrap (the parking plan) but we should take a little more time to come up with something,” he said. “You’re never going to make everybody happy, but if we could get 50 percent of the people behind it, I’d be okay with that.”
Some downtown businesses agree with that position.
Gardner Family Health Network plans to open a new clinic in downtown Gilroy in April, across the street from Sue’s Coffee Roasting Company. The company, which expects to have about a dozen employees and 40 clients each day, was among those who complained to Pinheiro about two-hour enforcement.
But Efrain Coria, Gardner’s chief operations officer, was open to compromise. He supported the idea of parking enforcement along Monterey Street while allowing employees and others to park along Eigleberry Street or the three lots off the road.
“As long as some consideration is given to the fact that employees do need some space,… I think we would support that,” Coria said.
At the end of the day, business owners may be asked to come up with a plan. Councilman Craig Gartman has criticized business owners who complain about a lack of parking while failing to police their own employees, who arrive early in the morning and take up the choicest spots.
He also is no fan of blanket enforcement. Instead, he suggested that employees, residents and shoppers work together on a plan to weather the parking crunch until October, when the streetscape work is expected to wrap up.
“I’m ready to let the shareholders figure out what measures they want to take,” he said. “If that turns out to be asking the city to do some type of enforcement, that’s fine. But I want the people who live and work down there being the ones to decide.”
