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It could soon cost more to park in Downtown Santa Ana – home to a hub of eateries, bars, artist studios, clothing stores and a host of other small businesses.
Santa Ana officials are debating increasing the price as staff warn of a projected $4.2 million deficit next year that’s only expected to widen over the next decade with the decrease of a sales tax measure in 2029.
The parking rate debate comes after Santa Ana officials publicly raised concerns about contracted parking enforcement officers lacking customer service skills and were ticketing for non-parking related infractions like expired registration tags and missing license plates.
[Read: Are Santa Ana’s Contracted Parking Officers Giving Too Many Tickets?]
It also comes at a time when local officials in cities are increasingly eying parking and parking enforcement as a way to bring millions of more in revenue to city coffers.
At the March 18 meeting, Santa Ana City Council members voted 4-2 to continue a discussion on setting a higher rate for curbside parking in downtown after city staff struggled to answer questions about when the area’s parking is the busiest.
They also directed City Manager Alvaro Nuñez to meet with business owners and set a new rate for city owned parking structures downtown on his own – a contentious move between some of the council members.
The decision came at the request of Councilwoman Jessie Lopez.
“I understand that specifically for the parking meters that must be changed via an ordinance that the policymakers must have a decision and provide comments. The structures, as I understand, it is not a requirement of this body to chime in and so therefore, yes, I think it is appropriate for us to rely on your leadership,” she said.
Council members Phil Bacerra and Thai Viet Phan were the dissenting votes, arguing that council members should weigh on how much people pay at city owned parking structures downtown.
“I don’t understand why we’re not having a discussion on the parking structures,” Phan said. “If we’re only making decisions based on curbside, then we’re leaving a whole host of context and information off the table.”
She also called for more information and possible options for different rates at different times of the day – an idea first proposed by Bacerra.
The expected parking rate increase comes amid a roughly $1.6 million deficit in the city’s parking enterprise fund which pays for downtown enhancements including a program to keep the area clean.
Officials have pulled $9.5 million in general fund dollars in the past five years to help pay for the parking expense
“This is why we need to make sure that the parking structures aren’t bleeding out and paying to collect revenue, but rather generating revenue so that we can reinvest it in the downtown to keep it safe and clean,” Bacerra said.
Bacerra also said the city manager and his staff already had a chance to address that deficit and now the council should intervene.
“This being left to staff – and I’m sorry I have to say this out loud – but it wasn’t working,” Bacerra said. “We were upside down over a million dollars and now as policymakers, we have to take on that responsibility to say, ‘Alright guys, this is where we need to go.’”
Councilman David Penaloza left the meeting early to attend the birth of his child.
Parking at city owned structures has been free from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays with 2-hour free parking in the evenings and on weekends since 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the streetcar project construction, according to a staff report.
Staff recommended Tuesday that officials increase the rate for the structures from $1.50 per hour – the price before COVID – to $2 per hour, increasing annually by 50 cents until it reaches $3 an hour in two years.
They also recommended officials increase the rate for the meters which are either $1 per hour or $2 per hour to $2.50 per hour increasing annually by 50 cents until it reaches $3.50 in two years.
The change in the first year staff said would bring in roughly $2.2 million
Delilah Snell, owner of Altabaja Market, said the city’s downtown area is often empty and raising parking prices would make it worse for businesses.
“80% of the time it’s dead. You all know it. When you walk the streets, it is dead. Our current affordable parking is one of the few payoffs that businesses in Downtown still have, and we still need it,” she said.
“You’re suffocating a district that’s already had so much hardship for years, and there’s still construction around us.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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