Downtown City Park in Paso Robles looks like it did five years ago after being stripped of 35 parking kiosks and parking signage.
Now that the city's paid parking program has been abolished, the Paso Robles Police Department will have to find a home for the leftover parking pay stations. Not only do the kiosks need to be sold, but they’re due for upgrades.
“We have 35 kiosks. If you do not purchase all 35, then there's what's called a rekeying fee," said Paso Robles Police Chief Damian Nord. "So for each one of the kiosks, if someone bought five of them, they're going to have to rekey each of those at a cost of approximately $600 per.”
The police department has received interest from Seal Beach, the City of San Luis Obispo, and the Port San Luis Harbor District but hasn’t worked out any deals just yet. Getting back as much money as they can is their top priority.
“Right now, we're kind of in cleanup mode," Chief Nord said. "We're redoing all of our contracts that we had related to parking, so either canceling them [or] narrowing them down to what we currently need for the short term until this is completely done.”
The next step is reaching out to bigger vendors nationwide.
“It feels pretty good," said Paso Robles resident Drew Hudson. "You're not looking to see if the parking guy is coming by or anything like that.”
Hudson previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and says he’s experienced being towed due to parking issues.
“I think Paso's issues are very low at this point and I think it's non-existent now that we don't have any paid parking," Hudson said. "So that's really great.”
Prior to his arrival in Paso Robles, Chief Nord worked in the city of Bakersfield where he dealt with more crime. He says he is encouraged by how Paso Robles residents are passionate about issues like parking.
“I appreciate the fact that we're talking about parking," Chief Nord told KSBY News reporter Ashley Stevens. "You're talking to me about parking. Not a homicide, not a carjacking, not not egregious crimes. We're talking about parking.”
According to Finance Manager Catherine Piotti, the kiosks were purchased for a total of $310,000. Before any property is sold, it needs city council approval. If there are proceeds from the sale, it will go back into the parking fund.
