Fees a response to deficits
Parking meters in Santa Monica will cost a bit more as early as this summer.
Rates for spots along the beach and downtown will be bumped up from 50-cents an hour to $1 an hour and remaining meters will be raised from between 35-cents and 50-cents to 75-cents an hour in compliance with new parking zones designated by the city Tuesday.
In addition, the city will install 360 new parking meters along Pearl Avenue and 16th Street adjacent to Santa Monica College and on side streets off of Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard downtown.
Officials said the city will install new mechanisms in old meters beginning this spring and expect everything to be in place by December.
While the higher cost of parking is sure to raise a few eyebrows around town, the new meters will simplify the parking experience by accepting a wider range of payments, city officials said.
The new machines will accept a variety of coins as well as “stored value cards,” which officials say work like parking debit cards. In addition, the new machines — which have yet to be chosen by the city — may accept credit cards, according to the city.
The meter overhaul is expected to cost $2.45 million and bring in an additional $3 million in annual city revenue.
“This is a response to the need for money,” said Lucy Dyke, transportation planning manager. “People want to have (public) services and this is one of the few revenues that the council has control over raising.”
The new zones were approved by councilmembers Tuesday but the proposal to increase fees and add more meters was approved in December.
To set the new parking rates, city staff compared prices in neighboring areas and said Santa Monica’s meters — which haven’t increased since 1991 — were behind the times.
“In most places, it costs less to park for an hour than it does to take the bus,” Dyke said.
Manhattan Beach, Venice Beach, Old Town Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Sunset Village, Redondo Beach, West Hollywood and West Los Angeles all charge more for metered parking, the city’s report said.
While the main goal of the price bump is to increase revenue, officials said the higher prices may have a beneficial impact on parking in Santa Monica by eliminating chronic meter “stuffers,” who plug change into a meter all day rather than park in a day spot.
City officials stressed that no meters will be placed in front of residences.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 13, 2003. Read the original PDF.