Pismo Beach will start charging for parking on one of its main downtown streets. Here’s why
Visitors and residents of Pismo Beach will be paying for parking in more parts of the city once redevelopment of Price Street wraps up this fall.
According to city manager Mike James, the re-paving of Price Street, which kicked off early this spring, will wrap up in early fall — featuring 210 new paid parking spots.
Drivers on Price Street have seen several changes to how parking has been organized along the street for the better part of the past year and a half, during which the city piloted several formats for parking, James said.
Currently, parking is arranged in a hybrid of diagonal parking spaces along the median of the road and parallel parking running along parts of the curbs, James said.
When the project is finished, all parking will be converted to diagonal spots lining the median of the street, James said.
“The advantage is to be able to highlight and showcase the businesses’ storefronts,” James said.
Decorative medians and business pop-outs will be more visible from the road, where parking rates will help ensure that vehicles continue to cycle in and out of parking spots, James said.
The change will also make downtown Pismo Beach a friendlier place for cyclists and pedestrians — a priority for the city as it tries to reduce overall traffic passing through the area, James said.
How much will new paid parking spaces in Pismo Beach cost?
Currently the city charges for parking in two downtown areas.
The first is in the area of Pomeroy and Hinds avenues near the Pismo Beach Pier Plaza, where parking varies between $3 to $5 per hour depending on occupancy levels, according to the city website.
The second is for parking in the city-owned lots off Dolliver and Main streets. There the rates are $2 to $4 per hour.
While the city has not set parking rates for the new meters — which cost $280,000 to purchase and install — James said the funds generated from the meters will pay into the city’s parking enterprise fund.
Meters will only operate from Friday through Sunday, in an attempt to strike a “balance between having parking spaces occupied all day on the week days vs. the weekend,” James said.
“Ideally, because its farther away from the beachfront, (rates) can be lower,“ with parking getting less expensive the farther you get from the beach, he said.
This story was originally published June 23, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
