A San Diego City Council committee voted 3-1 on March 20 to recommend approval of a comprehensive and controversial parking package to the full City Council.

That reform parking package could ultimately end free Sunday parking, extend paid parking past 6 p.m., and introduce special parking rates for Petco Park and Convention Center events.

The sole dissenting vote on recommending approval of the parking package was cast by Councilmember Marni von Wilpert of District 5. She said she would have preferred sending the parking package along to the full City Council without a recommendation from the council’s Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The four-member Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is chaired by Stephen Whitburn and includes vice chair Kent Lee along with Council members Henry L. Foster III and von Wilpert.

The proposed new package of sweeping changes to the availability and cost of San Diego public parking is part of an ongoing City effort to trim this year’s projected $258.2 million budget deficit.

These latest parking reform proposals follow the City’s action in February, doubling parking-meter rates from 1.25 to $2.50 an hour on 3,811 paid-parking meters Citywide. Metered parking exists in Downtown, Uptown, Mid-City, and Pacific Beach. Estimates are that the new parking meter rates will generate $800,000 monthly, about $9.6 million annually.

City Council revenue-generating measures, like increasing parking fines along with hiking parking meter rates, have come in response to the narrow failure last November of a 1-cent sales tax measure on the ballot that would have helped alleviate this year’s City budget deficit.

A City staff report on the Comprehensive Parking Reform Package noted that “increased development and growing parking demand in several parts of the City, as well as the evolution of parking management practices and tools, has created the need to modernize City parking management policies.”

Staff’s recommendation was for the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to approve a Comprehensive Parking Reform Package that includes amendments to the City’s Municipal Code. Changes would include:

– Amending language related to maximum rate and days of enforcement to enable implementation of dynamic parking management strategies that utilize demand-based rate structures based on occupancy, duration, market rates, and location to enable consistent utilization and turnover of on-street parking.

– Updating City municipal code sections discussing eligible uses of parking-meter revenues to include activities benefiting the management of parking utilization and availability for all vehicle types, traffic control, alternative mobility, parking enforcement, and parking meter administration.

– Specifying authority to regulate parking on city parking lots, including parks, beaches, open space, etc.

– Amending residential parking permit programs to allow for more streamlined permit-area establishment, as well as requiring mitigation of impacts to residents within one-quarter mile from parking meter zones from extended evening or Sunday meter operations by creating or adjusting residential parking permit options.

During the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee deliberation, chair Whitburn moved to approve the staff’s recommendation to approve the parking reform package in its entirety.

Committee vice chair Lee noted the parking package “comes at a really important time since the council recently voted to increase the citywide meter fee with the intent to better align with the (parking) rates we’ve seen across the region and state, but also to maximize revenue for the City given the budget deficit that we face. The actions we’ve taken are spurred by the budget challenges we’re facing. When it comes to efforts around parking, it’s going to need to be more than just a revenue opportunity. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to implement every single thing (parking change) that’s here today. It allows us the opportunity to rethink parking in ways in which we have been pretty hampered previously.”

Committee member Foster III was concerned about the proposal to charge for parking on Sundays. “We’re not saying here in this package that Sunday starting on this day, that it’s a go,” he said, adding, “I do have more questions on Sunday parking. Like, what that revenue would look like, what we would be leaving on the table, if we decide not to move forward with Sunday parking.”