Home › News › Local News
Parking meters OK'd for Ventura
Devices planned for downtown
Download this story as a podcast!
STORY TOOLS 
More from Local NewsParking meters are coming to downtown Ventura, city leaders have decided, and the debate now is when to install them and how to spend the revenue.
The meters, likely to be wireless and solar-powered and accept credit cards, won't be installed until January at the earliest, officials said. The installation, however, could be postponed at the Ventura City Council's discretion.
Meanwhile, a majority of council members favors spending the money on downtown safety and beautification.
Downtown officials say meters will improve parking turnover and availability, particularly in front of shops, while providing a steady revenue stream to improve the area. Critics say the meters are unnecessary, will chase away customers and alter the welcoming character of downtown.
The council voted 6-1 at a special May 29 hearing to move forward with the meters, establish a parking district in collaboration with downtown groups and continue exploring the construction of new parking structures, possibly in unison with a private housing, commercial or office development.
Downtown has had meters twice before. They were last removed in the late 1990s, when sidewalks on Main were widened, Councilman Jim Monahan said.
Councilman Neal Andrews opposes bringing them back, arguing they would be unnecessary if merchants and their employees didn't park along Main Street and existing parking rules were enforced.
"The idea of putting meters down there and creating another impediment makes absolutely no sense to me," Andrews said.
But city Transportation Manager Tom Mericle said the meter rates — likely to start at about $1 an hour along Main Street — would be flexible and based on demand and use. Because the meters will be electronic, the price can be changed instantly, and rates could go down if demand drops, he said.
"The meters shouldn't be a deterrent to getting people downtown," he said.
Parking on Main currently is free and often is full during lunch hours, evenings and weekends, while nearby public lots have vacancies, surveys show. There are about 7,800 parking spaces downtown, 4,800 of them in the central core, Mericle said.
A preliminary spending list for the meter revenue includes police services, landscaping, restrooms, sidewalk cleaning, better signs and alternative transportation programs.
At the hearing, leaders of the Downtown Ventura Organization said office tenants want parking adjacent to their businesses and suggested the city remain open on the location of future parking structures rather than picking one spot, which the council agreed with. Organization members plan to take an active role in the formation of the parking management district and work with potential property developers and downtown landowners.
Meanwhile, a major utility project that has ripped up Main Street is nearing completion.
New sewage and water pipes have been installed, and this week crews are disinfecting the new water pipes and paving crosswalks, parking stalls and areas around hydrants. The project should be essentially completed by June 19, city officials said.
A complete repaving effort downtown is not scheduled until September, said Mark Quady, a city project engineer.
Posted by celtcwrtr on June 11, 2008 at 6:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
it will take until september for the damage to the streets by the work that's recently been done to be paved over? it'll wear out my tires by then. (i live downtown.)
Posted by cadillaczac on June 11, 2008 at 6:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is just another blatant attempt by the city of Ventura to exploit the pocketbooks of its residents for profitable gain. Maybe they have decided that they need to install more signs that say "Ventura-Shop, Surf pretend its Santa Monica", or perhaps they have decided that too many tourists are getting lost and the blue signs on the side of the road that direct you to the mall, beach or downtown are not clear or big enough. I guess the money could go to paint the bus stops in a more attractive manner or perhaps even build more questionable art that both doubles as a tetanus shot waiting to happen or a bus station. Or maybe they can use the funds to fix main street, because I don't believe my front suspension has suffered enough. What's next, signs on the street lights letting you know you just parked in section Mickey 6?
Posted by dickventura on June 11, 2008 at 6:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
let's start spending the money AFTER we have PAID FOR the new aesthetic, solar, computerized, programmable parking meters. That will probably be around 2020.
Posted by Camman1 on June 11, 2008 at 6:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
As someone who visits downtown Ventura maybe twice a year, I find this to be a really stupid idea.
Posted by stik_figure on June 11, 2008 at 10:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
There are hundreds of non-metered parking spaces throughout downtown which leaves shoppers/diners/tourists/residents plenty of options if they feel $1.00 an hour is too excessive for the convenience of parking on Main Street. There is also FREE parking in the parking structure on the corner of Santa Clara and California Street which is smack dab in the middle of the downtown core. You have options people.
I work in downtown and understand that there will be occasional inconveniences when it comes to road construction/repairs. Even I, with my limited construction knowledge, realize that water/sewer pipes installed 20+ years were not designed to meet the current use or meant to last forever. What other options does the City have? It's either be proactive and upgrade now or defer and pay the price later when a water or sewer line breaks.
Posted by DowntownVentura on June 11, 2008 at 2:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Rob Edwards here, executive director of the Downtown Ventura Organization. Allow me to address the aforementioned concerns a bit:
1.) Re-paving Main Street in September rather than July was decided by city staff. Probably because time needs to pass for the new infrastructure to be tested and paving immediately after work is done in June would not be wise. Ugly as it is right now, waiting til after Labor Day is probably best for our businesses too; some cant handle one more minute of construction noise, dust, and disruption at this point.
2.) A formal “parking district” board will be formed to manage the meter implementation process and determine where revenue will be spent. Downtowners will likely populate this future board and Council realizes there is national precedent for spending ALL parking revenues WITHIN the district where they are collected.
3.) Enforcement costs will likely decrease because the meters are actually kiosks—just two per block face--that are easily monitored from laptops; many other cities have successfully paved he way for solar-powered, WiFi-enabled, credit card-taking meters. Think about this: you may NEVER get a parking ticket AGAIN downtown [today they are $40] because once you swipe your Visa the meter could run until you return. Thus you don’t have to worry about hustling back to your vehicle within an hour to plug a meter with change. You may pay $8 for eight hours, BUT isn’t that better than paying $0 for two hours and $40 for any second beyond the first two hours if you get busted and get a ticket? Think about it.
4.) Meters benefit merchants. Period. It’s a proven fact. And it recruits higher-end consumers who hate to "park around back" and thus don’t come downtown all because they can “never find a space on Main Street.” Single women with children, the elderly, or anyone who wishes they could someday actually be able to park in front of their favorite store might actually have a chance now because the EMPLOYEES of the neighboring stores wont be parked on Main Street. I think Main St merchants all realize these facts, which is why after FOUR town hall meetings on the topic of meters last month that there was almost no opposition to the idea. Trust me, I was surprised at the lack of opposition myself.
5.) Free parking is never free. Someone somewhere is paying. Wouldn’t you prefer to have the consumers who are actually consuming be the ones to pay for the primo spaces on Main Street during peak hours? Otherwise you have people who are walking their dog, working in the restaurants, and/or just window shopping [and not spending] squatting on spaces meant for real consumers. Retail business improves with the introduction of meters. This is downtown retail redevelopment 101.
6.) Coincidentally, there is another good parking read in today’s LA Times. It’s great background on the history of meters:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-...
Posted by deepwater805 on June 11, 2008 at 8:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Greeaaat... now maybe City of Ventura will have the money to fix that downtown debacle known as Main Street. What a way to lure more visitors (read tourists dollars) by making them pay for the honor of parking on a street that they need a 4x4 to drive on.
Posted by vcmann on June 12, 2008 at 10:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
To say that meters are going to prevent shop employees from parking in front of the store all day is a bunch of Baloney! There is already a 2 hour limit on parking so these employees can't just stay there all day anyway. I have lunch every day in the downtown area and I never have a problem parking, all of this is a bunch of bull. The city is always looking for a new way to gouge us and now they apparently have the self appointed guardians of our downtown as thier spokespeople.
Posted by Rob_Dawg on June 14, 2008 at 4:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The current hyper-urbanist planner cabal controlling city hall hates cars. It is sometimes really that simple.
Am I the only one uncomfortable with my credit card data being wirelessly transmitted from an automated kiosk? No operator, no imprint, no verification. I don't. Sure it's secure. Sure.
I give it 3 months before the downtown merchants beg for some kind of relief.
Posted by iheartmycreepers on June 19, 2008 at 8:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Does no one remember downtown Ventura having parking meters many years ago? And they took them out obviously, so why make the same mistake twice?
Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We do not allow the following:
- Posts that degrade others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
- Disparaging remarks, abusive language or obscene comments.
- Threats, whether obvious or veiled.
We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.
There are 10 comments to this article.
Comments are found beneath the Yahoo! ad below.