Mountain View considers paid parking and residential permits to curb parking demand

Double-parked delivery vehicles, cars on red curbs and vehicles blocking driveways are not uncommon sights in Mountain View. The parking violations are a safety hazard and public nuisance, but they also underscore another problem in the city – namely that the demand for on-street parking in parts of the city exceeds available spaces.

The City Council took steps to address this issue on Tuesday evening in a study session that reviewed the city’s street parking regulations.

“I do think that it’s good that we’re looking at this. We’re facing really a sea change in terms of parking,” Council member Alison Hicks said at the June 11 meeting.

Certain trends are making on-street parking more difficult to accommodate in Mountain View. This includes state laws that say cities can’t require developers to provide parking near public transit and new street designs that reduce the number of parking spots, as well as high-density housing and single occupancy vehicle use that put more pressure on already limited spaces.

Ultimately, the council recommended that the city investigate a residential permit parking program, even though one has been on the books since 2016. It has just never been implemented. They also supported the possibility of paid street parking, which has been considered in the past too.

But at the top of their discussion was the issue of parking enforcement – something that the report did not explicitly address.

“To me, this staff report was basically parking regulation 101, and I felt like it was really good to get us all on the same page and to educate us,” Mayor Pat Showalter said. “One of the things that I noticed, however, is that this review was silent on enforcement.”

Mountain View Police Chief Mike Canfield addressed some of these concerns, noting that patrol officers and community service officers respond to parking violation complaints when reported. They also proactively enforce regulations, primarily in the downtown area.

“But it’s a big city and there are vehicles everywhere,” Canfield said, adding that the police can’t monitor every type of parking violation with its current staffing levels.

While council members supported more consistent police enforcement, they also were in favor of other parking management strategies, like updating Mountain View’s residential permit parking program.

The idea behind the program is that it would provide relief for neighborhoods that experience overflow parking from nearby commercial, transit or school areas, said Senior Traffic Engineer Carla Ochoa, who presented the report to the council.

Under the program, designated areas would have time limits on parking, with an exemption for vehicles with parking permits – though it would not necessarily guarantee a spot if no on-street parking is available, Ochoa said.

So far, there has not been enough community interest in a specific neighborhood for the residential permit program to get off the ground. Council members questioned why this was the case, with Hicks commenting that the program could possibly work better if it was initiated by the city and not residents.

“I think one of the problems that we’ve had is we are mostly asking residents to arrange that. And if it’s a tool for making our active transportation plan or our downtown or our village centers function, then it shouldn’t be up to the residents to initiate,” she said.

Council member Ellen Kamei expressed support for a residential permit program in Mountain View that potentially could be used alongside other parking management strategies, like meters or paid lots, similar to what has been implemented in Palo Alto, Redwood City and San Mateo.

“In my mind, enforcement is not just the police department, but enforcement can also be paying for parking,” Kamei said, adding that it was problematic for the city to have a residential permit program that has never been implemented. “Nobody has successfully petitioned (for it), and I’m curious, is it because there isn’t anything else helping lead it to success?” she asked.

Hicks expressed ambivalence at the idea of paid or metered parking, particularly in the downtown area, noting that it could possibly deter people from visiting if they could go elsewhere for free.

Council member Lisa Matichak also raised questions about the success of the city’s transportation demand management strategies, which aims to incentivize residents and employees to use alternative and sustainable transportation options.

Referring directly to the council report, Matichak noted that the strategies “do not offset parking demand to the extent that may be required to avoid street parking impacts,” and encouraged the city to have more realistic assumptions about what could be achieved.

Council members also encouraged more education and community outreach to better inform the public about Mountain View’s parking regulations, which could help ease some of the parking problems seen on the streets.

“I’m going to assume people maybe just don’t know as opposed to just ignoring (the parking rules). So maybe not just education on the new laws, but education on the existing laws would be helpful,” Matichak said.