Attachment 5 - Public Comments<>
From:
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2023 12:50 PM
To: Council <Council@losgatosca.gov>
Cc: Monica Renn <mrenn@losgatosca.gov>; Mike Millen
Subject: Los Gatos Downtown Paid Parking Program comments
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Dear Council:
I have reviewed the staff report and I attended one of the meetings this week about the
parking programs in town.
First, I am very much in support of the current employee parking program and I believe
it should be expanded to include Saturdays (currently it is Monday through Friday only).
Second, I am very much against any paid customer parking program. Such a program
will harm my tenants, discourage customers from coming to Los Gatos, further reduce
our competitiveness with downtown Campbell, and the program will cost a lot of money
and the costs will naturally increase dramatically as time goes on.
The entire issue of a paid customer parking program appears to be caused by high
school students parking spilling out on the Main Street area and clashing with salon
customer parking. This is not a good reason to create a new downtown-wide program
that will have so many negative effects. One solution to the high school kids parking
issue is to have the town contact our state senator and state representative and ask
them to change California law and allow high school kids to carpool together to and
from school ONLY. This will not be a safety issue and will cut the number of kids driving
to school by 50% or more. A simple, cost effective solution that protects the community
and does not require another government program.
I urge you to expand the employee program to include Saturdays.
I urge you to reject all paid customer parking programs for downtown Los Gatos.
Thank you,
Mark Millen
Los Gatos, CA
ATTACHMENT 5
-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Patterson <>
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2023 3:03 PM
To: Town Manager <Manager@losgatosca.gov>
Subject: Parking
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
If you require people to pay for parking, they will not come and there will be more empty store
fronts!!!
M. Patterson
Resident
Sent from my iPhone
From: Inder Singh <>
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2023 1:06 PM
To: Council <Council@losgatosca.gov>
Subject: Against paid parking
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Hello Council,
Paid parking will really make shopping not a pleasant experience for my customers.
I currently also have a location at Valley Fair Mall,last year Valley Fair started paid parking
which was so annoying for customers.I had lot of Los Gatos customers shopping at Valley
Fair I can’t tell you how many customers said to me personally they will never shop at valley
Fair again.which is what made me come to Los Gatos.now same thing again.
It is my humble request to drop the idea of paid parking for customers.
Regards
Inder singh
Departures
301N Santa Cruz Ave
Los Gatos Ca 95030
From: <>
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2023 12:50 PM
To: Council <Council@losgatosca.gov>
Cc: Monica Renn <mrenn@losgatosca.gov>; Mike Millen
Subject: Los Gatos Downtown Paid Parking Program comments
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Dear Council:
I have reviewed the staff report and I attended one of the meetings this week about the
parking programs in town.
First, I am very much in support of the current employee parking program and I believe
it should be expanded to include Saturdays (currently it is Monday through Friday only).
Second, I am very much against any paid customer parking program. Such a program
will harm my tenants, discourage customers from coming to Los Gatos, further reduce
our competitiveness with downtown Campbell, and the program will cost a lot of money
and the costs will naturally increase dramatically as time goes on.
The entire issue of a paid customer parking program appears to be caused by high
school students parking spilling out on the Main Street area and clashing with salon
customer parking. This is not a good reason to create a new downtown-wide program
that will have so many negative effects. One solution to the high school kids parking
issue is to have the town contact our state senator and state representative and ask
them to change California law and allow high school kids to carpool together to and
from school ONLY. This will not be a safety issue and will cut the number of kids driving
to school by 50% or more. A simple, cost effective solution that protects the community
and does not require another government program.
I urge you to expand the employee program to include Saturdays.
I urge you to reject all paid customer parking programs for downtown Los Gatos.
Thank you,
Mark Millen
Los Gatos, CA
-----Original Message-----
From: Sue Farwell
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2023 10:45 AM
To: Monica Renn <mrenn@losgatosca.gov>
Subject: Council Parking Agenda
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Esteemed Council Members,
I would like to offer my input on the downtown paid parking models in the report proposed by
staff of the council meeting. Monica Renn and Nicole Burnham presented the different options
at a stakeholder meeting last week at the chamber of commerce. I haven’t reviewed at the
Dixon parking report in a while, but both Monica and Nicole referenced the report with regard
to many of the models in the proposals.
On the updated fee schedule I feel the cost recovery as proposed for residential parking is fair
under (a.i). I live in a residential parking zone and without the residential permits I would not
be able to find parking near my home. I also feel that the town needs to keep the 2 visitor
parking permits per address at no fee, these are used occasionally and should be included if you
have paid for a residential parking permit. I would like to express my strong dislike of the “Get
a Permit” web app to pay for residential permits. The website is difficult to update and their
response time and ability to resolve issues is terrible.
Matching rates in the olive zone for employee parking seems equitable as well and should be
included in a town wide employee parking permit fee. The purpose of the employee parking
permit is to allow employees to park once and not have to continually move their car. This
permit should cost a minimal amount and be renewable every 6 months. The renewal process
should be seamless, and perhaps a $10 or $20 fee associated with the permit would allow for
the cost recovery of processing the permit. This will help with the accounting of the true
number of employee parking permits issued and the number of required employee parking
spaces. The system now has no accounting of “active” and “non-active” employee permits
since they are free they in essence don’t expire, so the town really has no idea of the true
number of employee parking spaces needed. Having proof of employment and a small fee
associated with the issuance and renewal of the employee permit will result in the expired
permits to be removed from the system.
On the option for paid parking, perhaps we’re not “there” yet if we can control the actual need
for employee parking, but it would allow for a longer or all day option for our customer base. In
considering the paid parking structure, none of the options presented allow for a 30 minute or
1 hour free on street parking only. I understand these are “prime” parking spaces to charge a
fee, but if the time limits were shortened then the parking spaces would turn over more often,
encouraging the longer parking time limits to move to the surface lots. This eliminates the
need for multiple parking pay stations on the street, and the ability to quickly park and shop for
to-go items or a make a quick retail shopping trip easy.
In my opinion, the paid parking would encourage customers to stay longer and not worry about
getting a ticket. The consensus in the most of the options is to allow for 3 free hours, and then
charge a fee on an hourly or full day basis. If this was implemented with $1.00 per hour rate
after 3 hours or a $5.00 all day option the cost should be acceptable to most of our customer
base. This should allow for the cost recovery, not necessarily a profit or revenue option, but we
shouldn’t be trying to profit off our parking if we are not going to use the money to build
another parking garage.
Oak Meadow parking…allow for a free 1 hour option to encourage the use of the play
structures which is so important and enjoyable for the kids.
There are so many options presented, perhaps the best move is to eliminate at least 2 of the
options, or create an option 4 that has the best of the 3 paid parking scenarios included. I
myself do not like the idea of the pay stations on the street, so I would encourage all street
parking to be short term and free. I also do not like the no re-park rule, what if you need t
make 2 trips to downtown, not you will be ticketed for re-parking in the same or different lot.
Sincerely,
Sue Farwell