Installation of parking meters recently began in San Diego's Pacific Beach community, part of a pilot program rolled out in the neighborhood's business-heavy center.
Up till now, the beach town had been exclusively first come, first served for parking.
The meters will be springing up on Garnet Ave from Fanuel down to Mission Boulevard, as well as on the western edge of Hornblend Street and some nearby sections of the cross streets Cass and Bayard.
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"It's in our core business district so as to not disrupt the residential areas," said Sunny Lee, who is the executive director of Discover Pacific Beach, which is the designated advisory board for the Pacific Beach Community Parking District. "So you're not going to see parking meters in places where it's primarily housing. You're only going to see it where it's primarily businesses."
The meters won't break the bank: They're $1.25 an hour, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., except for Sundays, which, thankfully, will remain off the books. The meters are being installed where there is currently a limit of two-hour parking, which will be the case in the new pay zone as well.
"We want it to be easier to travel around and park and be in PB, and then, yeah, we want the turnover for the businesses to be successful and for people to use those parking spaces as they're intended," Lee said.
The installation is part of one-year pilot program, after which officials will assess the success of program and how to proceed.
The initiative, which was green-lit by a PB planning group three years ago and got the city council stamp of approval a year later, is isolated to PB. Lee said she was unaware of any plans for it to spread to any of the city's other coastal communities.
The money raised from parking will go into the city's general fund and will also be used to pay for mobility programs in PB, including Pacific Beach's free Beach bug shuttle program.
"We can do other things like more bike lanes, more way-finding signage, and anything that has to do with making it easier to be mobile in PB," Lee said.
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The four Beach Bug shuttles can be summoned from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. — till 10 on weekend nights — via the Circuit app, Lee said. Want to take the trolley to the beach? The Beach Bug is there.
And if the parking pilot program is a big success, what then?
"It's got to be weighed in by the Parking Advisory Board," Lee said. "So they're going to have to make that decision and see. We got to look at the numbers, see how utilization is, see how the traffic is, maybe do another traffic study."
Could this spell the end for free beach parking in PB?
"We're not looking to charge for beach parking," Lee said. "It's mostly in the business district. So where you find businesses is mostly where you'll find meters."
Motorists can keep parking for free till November, when the meters will be turned on.
