Pismo Beach city officials say a parking pilot program implemented earlier this year did not produce the results they expected.
City Manager Jorge Garcia says the intent of the program was to see if there were other parking configurations along Price Street that would add more spaces to the area.
With the pilot program concluding at the end of the summer, city officials are now looking into other options.
The‘2023 Pilot Parking Configuration Program’ began construction in March.
City officials had several parking spaces near intersections eliminated or reduced to motorcycle spaces to accommodate turns for fire engines and large vehicles.
These adjustments reduced the parking count from 195 parking spaces to 179 regular parking spaces and 15 motorcycle parking spaces.
Garcia says this wasn’t what they were expecting.
“The additional parking didn’t quite happen the way we wanted because we did narrow the roadway in order to have double parking along the center median,” Garcia said. “What we came to find out is that we had to lose some parking spaces because our fire trucks couldn’t make the turns. Our delivery trucks couldn’t make the turns. We had to reduce some parking so the net impact didn’t yield the total amount of spaces that we anticipated.”
During the re-design, city officials had several meetings with local businesses to get feedback on the plan.
Some of the comments received included better visibility for storefronts, as they were previously blocked by large cars.
“One of the big perks that I have noticed about the new layout is that before, big vehicles would park right on the curb blocking our front of our business so it was hard for people to see, so now that it's wide open, all of our business around here, I mean, everyone can see,” said Bobby Lynch, House of the Rising Buns owner.
But business owners also pointed out several problems including vehicles speeding, drivers not stopping at stop signs, and traffic issues because of cars backing up.
“I personally don’t like this parking. The way that it’s configured right now, I think it’s really dangerous. We already have a problem with cars speeding on Price Street and cars not stopping at all of the stop signs, so I think by having the pathway so narrow for cars to drive through is dangerous,” said Lisa Kruitbosch, Pismo Beach Optix owner and optician.
After hearing some of the concerns from the public, the city council decided they would continue to look for other alternatives to the pilot parking program.
Garcia tells KSBY that the city is now looking into adopting a “hybrid option” which would return Price Street back to its previous configuration consisting of alternating diagonal parking,
*This story has been updated to reflect that under the new hybrid model, there will not be parking along the curbs.
