By SDCN Staff
San Diego, CA — The San Diego City Council approved a comprehensive package of parking reforms, which will enhance the management of on-street parking and facilitate greater investment in parking meter zones.
This long-overdue update will bring the City’s practices and pricing into line with those of most other major cities in California.
Increased development and growing parking demand, as well as the evolution of parking management tools and best practices, has created the need to modernize the City’s parking policies. Curb space is a limited, valuable resource that the City has a responsibility to manage effectively and balance competing needs.
These parking reforms are the culmination of more than a year of work. In July 2024 the Sustainability and Mobility Department contracted with Fehr & Peers, a traffic engineering and transportation planning consulting firm. The consultants performed a detailed analysis and prepared a series of parking management recommendations, outlining the measures needed for an effective and efficient parking management framework in the city.
The changes approved by the Council will amend the Municipal Code and Council policies to allow for changes in parking meter zones, residential parking programs, valet parking, and parking management during special events. Reforms to Community Parking District management and funding allocations are also included.
These actions are intended to address on-street parking within the city limits. Plans to implement recommendations for management of City-owned parking lots and facilities are still in development.
The actions approved by the Council today include:
- Adjusting parking fees to a range rather than a set rate allows for “dynamic pricing” to better address times and locations where there is high parking demand, including during special events such as concerts, conventions, parades, and festivals. Dynamic pricing, which is used by most large cities in California, can improve parking availability, reduce traffic congestion, bring more revenue to the City, and encourage the use of alternative modes of transportation.
- Allowing the City to manage parking demand and availability seven days a week, including high-demand periods on weekends. This will help encourage turnover, resulting in more opportunities for drivers to park at their favorite shops, restaurants, and other attractions.
- City staff will be required to consult with and provide solutions for, residents who rely on regulated street parking due to a lack of off-street solutions before parking meter enforcement expands to Sundays.
- The City is also updating fees for valet parking permit applications and permits for blocking parking spaces during construction, to better address the lost parking availability and revenue in those locations.
- Community Parking District management will also be reformed, to address how parking meter funds are spent by the districts. Proposed changes to the parking district budget and work plan process will significantly improve efficiency and transparency.
Parking meter revenues are limited by state and local law to specific areas and uses. They must be reinvested to benefit parking and mobility-related needs within the meter zone where they were collected. These revenues will be critical to support improvements and ongoing maintenance of local infrastructure while freeing up less restricted General Fund resources for other uses.
These actions set the policy framework, but actual changes to existing meters and meter rates will be implemented over time with appropriate Council and stakeholder engagement and public notification.
