What’s happening?
Parking in these areas was restricted to two hours. The new parking restrictions apply to both sides of the following streets and blocks:
- 300-400 block of East San Antonio Street
- 100-200 block of North Edward Gary Street
- 100-200 block of Martin Luther King Drive
- 300-400 block of West San Antonio Street
- 400-500 block of West San Antonio Street
Carina Pinales, past chair of the parking board and president of the Downtown Association of San Marcos, said the recommendations were from listening to downtown business owners, residents and the city's parking manager.
Mayor Jane Hughson emphasized the new four-hour parking restriction will give people more time to shop or use other services, such as hairdressers.
“Staff is always working with boards and commissions and the public in order to find solutions to better help our community, and they knocked it out of the park on this one,” Hughson told Community Impact.
Some context
In 2017, the council approved a two-hour parking restriction based on recommendations from the Downtown Parking Initiatives Report. The report was established to create a “uniform parking restriction for the downtown area,” according to agenda documents.
Parking enforcement staff had observed the two-hour parking restriction has been underutilized and reported issuing below-average violation counts with the aforementioned areas. According to agenda documents, they averaged 7 1/2 violations over the past year, while other enforcement areas averaged 36 violations.
Items worth mentioning
The city is piloting its Employee Parking Program, which aims to provide solutions for downtown employees in need of a place to park while at work, giving employees a location to park during their shifts and free up parking spaces downtown. Individuals interested in learning more about the Employee Parking Program can visit http://sanmarcostx.gov/3557/Employee-Parking-Program.
