UPDATE: The City Council Tuesday night approved changes to downtown parking in the city.
The council authorized the Public Works Department to approve the development and implementation of a new parking management plan.
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The San Luis Obispo City Council is set to consider changes to the city’s parking management plan.
In updating the plan, the city hopes to encourage the use of alternative transportation, especially public transit and bicycles.
“We do see a lot of people walk and bike to downtown, we want to encourage responsible behavior. Parking is a really limited resource in our community and we want to make sure that that stays available for the people who can't walk and bike," said Gaven Hussey, the San Luis Obispo Parking Program Manager.
Starting in July, downtown parking rates will increase. The increase was approved by the city council last year.
While the plan does not ask for an additional increase at this time, city officials say it does suggest that long-term parking rates be studied for potential increases in the future.
According to the city, parking fees help pay for new parking structures, modern parking payment kiosks and apps, and gateless parking at the structures, as well as daily parking operations and maintenance.
It has been 20 years since the city's parking management plan was updated.
The new plan will be introduced to the city council during Tuesday night's meeting. It starts at 5:30 p.m.
Here is a link to the full parking management plan.
Editor's note: A previous version of this article stated that the updated parking management plan would increase parking fees in downtown San Luis Obispo. The article has been corrected to reflect that parking increases set to go into effect this July were approved by the city council last year.
