If you happen to travel along Price Street, you’ll notice it’s currently getting a major upgrade.
City officials say that over 200 parking meters will be installed along this busy stretch of road and parking spots have been reconfigured.
The construction on Price Street is part of the last phase of Pismo Beach’s street improvement project.
Pismo Beach Assistant City Manager Mike James says this development will help rejuvenate this area of the city.
“This project is ... the city's largest street improvement project that we have going on right now,” said James. “The intent behind this last phase is to really rejuvenate, rehabilitate the roadway, and reenergize downtown with a unique parking structure and configuration.”
After testing out diagonal parking along the center median of Price Street, city officials decided to reconfigure the parking spots to parallel and diagonal parking.
“That gives proper clearance to our public safety, public safety partners, so police and fire to make sure that they have ample clearance when they're driving through town,” said James. “But then it also gives it a really unique appearance and feel, so it's not just the same parking that you see as you go from block to block.”
James says the reconfiguration will provide neighboring businesses with a more ample view.
Bobby Lynch, the owner of House of the Rising Buns, says curbside parking was not ideal in the past.
“There's no more curbside parking," said Lynch. "So nothing is blocking the actual businesses here on Price Street, which is a good thing."
Once the parking meters are in place, they will only be active from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
Local residents from Arroyo Grande tell me parking in Pismo Beach has gotten quite expensive.
“I think it's ridiculous," said Isabel Alvarez, Arroyo Grande resident. “Prices are already going up. I think they should just have these spaces available and then have a parking lot and then pay there."
“The parking here isn't as limited,” said Mylah Schoenfeldt, also from Arroyo Grande resident. “It's not as scarce, so I feel like it's totally fair for us to be able to park freely here just because people are already going around. There's so many spaces open, they're making more spaces open. It's just kind of crazy to charge us for this.”
Local businesses say this project may impact local community members and businesses in the area.
“I feel it's going up for business around here a little bit,” said Micahel Atiles, Golden Bay Mechanical owner. “It's a little hard for me since I work for all the restaurants here also. ... It's just going to be like San Luis Obispo, it sounds like. That's too bad.”
“It might hinder some of the locals from coming down here,” said Lynch. “I've been hearing from a lot of them that they're kind of upset about it — that they're going to have to pay to come down here, even though we’re locals.”
City officials say the funds from the parking meters will go back into the parking enterprise fund.
At this time, there is no specific revenue amount the city is looking to gain from the meters on Price Street but they will look into its occupancy rate over time.
“Ideally what we're looking at is an occupancy rate of somewhere about 85% and so that will give enough opportunity or vacancy for individuals to come back and forth,” said James.
City officials anticipate construction on Price Street will be completed later this year.
