The Unwanted Stepchild of Downtown Development — PARKING

To my way of thinking, it is always best to start from that old KISS perspective: Keep It Simple Stupid! At a recent Planning Commission meeting, I listened to Larry Arzie admonish the Town’s planning staff for recommending approval of the theater renovation when the renovation plan ignored an essential consideration required of all downtown projects, the increased parking requirements when a project is allowed increased seating, as with the theater’s increased food service and the added space in the new patio behind the marquee.  This added seating would “intensify” the need for parking.   We all know that parking in Los Gatos has always been a horrendous problem but I later questioned Mr. Arzie about his position on the theater.

As he had said at the meeting, he was all in favor of the quality renovation of our downtown theater but he was adamant about this “intensification” problem. If town planners were going to allow any other sort of business besides retail (such as restaurants, hair dressers, wine bars, any sort of place where people come to town and sit down for appreciable amounts of time, unlike the mobile foot traffic of retail establishments), they have to account for the additional parking required by these immobile seats. Adding more of this “non-retail” sort of business is called “intensification.” I was beginning to see Larry’s point. But where can the new parking go? There just are no more spots for parking in downtown, we all know that. There is an old rule-of-thumb regarding downtown Los Gatos – There are 900 parking places in town, there are 900 employees working at the downtown businesses. Where do the customers park? (I’m not sure of the accuracy of this old saw, but it makes the point.) Just as new businesses have to provide for increased usage of power and sewage services that they require, they should, as well, provide for new, increased parking usage. However, we can’t just create new parking spaces where there is no space for them. The policy has been that the new businesses be assessed for their increased parking requirements and be charged for the increase, the money being put into a town “parking fund” to eventually build new parking facilities, such as new parking garages above or below ground. Now, this sounded like a simple, practical and “do-able” plan. At this time, I only recall the one municipal parking garage, between Santa Cruz Avenue and University, near Old Town (The parking garage under the Old Town Annex is owned by Old Town, not the Town of Los Gatos). Why don’t the rest of the lots covering the old railroad right-of-way between Santa Cruz and University have garages as well? No funds.

Larry told me that there have been provisions for assessing new businesses fees for their parking requirements since the days when Mountain Charley’s first opened in the early 1970s. The planning staff hasn’t always bothered to impose such assessments for the past 40 years, and if they have made such assessments, and charged the new businesses, it turns out that these monies actually go into the general fund, not some specially earmarked parking fund and are used for all sorts of other things. Thus, no bucks for more parking structures, above ground or below. Thus, Larry’s admonition last week. This gave me pause.

The town fathers foresaw this parking problem and . . .

(click here to read the conclusion)