For months Paso Robles residents and businesses have voiced concern over the city's downtown parking program.

"We are not criminals and should not be treated as such!" one business owner wrote in a response to a city downtown parking survey shared with New Times.

• Photo Courtesy Of The City Of Paso Robles
• PARKING PROBLEM As the holiday season begins, the downtown area of Paso Robles finds itself dealing with parking fee woes as the council deliberates on long-term solutions.

Responses from residents and business owners were gathered over several months by an ad hoc committee headed by Paso Robles City Councilmembers Chris Bausch and Steve Gregory.

"[It] discourages family from visiting town because of the headache of the parking/forgetting to pay and getting an expensive ticket," resident Kyle Wilson said in response to the survey. "[So] mine and other families and friends dislike coming to town for lunches and other activities."

The issues that have plagued residents like Wilson with parking tickets are due to a misunderstanding over the program's first two hours of free parking. Although those hours are free, parkers are still required to register their vehicle in the city's parking payment system to avoid getting a parking ticket.

Resident suggestions, concerns, and discussions led the City Council to vote 3-2 on Nov. 21 to modify the downtown parking program, which will change sometime in early 2024.

The first change will be to the hourly parking rate. The fee will go from $2 an hour after the first two free hours to $1 an hour with no hours free.

The council also voted to begin the process of changing where downtown parking rates are enforced, improving signage informing downtown visitors about how to pay for parking, and developing more accessible phone apps and payment options.

"The program is in the red!" local business Topaz Wines wrote about the downtown parking program in its response to the survey, noting that they see many of the area's restaurant employees often parking in the paid area as they are confused as to where they can park.

Topaz Wines also said that many seniors had been driven away by the confusing nature of the phone apps that visitors must use to pay for parking under the current system. The council hopes to address those concerns by introducing an unlimited senior parking permit system for city residents ages 65 and older.

But some residents said that app accessibility issues affect people of all ages.

"The city is eager to give out parking tickets," one 24-year-old resident said in their survey response. "Fewer locals are using downtown, downtown parking should be free for taxpaying residents, and the parking ticket is way too high." Δ