City Council Meeting
May 27, 2025
Responses to City Council Agenda Questions
7:00 pm Regular Meeting
Item 7a. SBCF Proposal to fund Station 52 Replacement. Can the presentation include details of what if any community engagement took place prior to the Board’s decision?
• RESPONSE:
The question will be addressed.
Item 7d. Paid Parking Program
o Why do we need entire new signs to change the hours on the parking program, rather than stickers to change the 8am to 10am? This photo shows that an initial misprint on lot signs (8 to 10 hour) was corrected with stickers during initial program launch.
• RESPONSE:
Full sign replacement is recommended due to both content changes and durability concerns.
The new parking regulations require more than a simple time edit—for example, changing from “EVERYDAY 8AM – 6PM” to “10AM – 6PM.” These updates significantly alter the message layout and require adjustments to font size and spacing. Signs must comply with minimum letter height and visibility standards to remain enforceable and accessible to the public.
From a materials standpoint, while stickers were used during initial rollout to quickly correct a misprint, they are not suitable for long-term use. The permanent signs are manufactured with an anti-graffiti coating to prevent vandalism and ensure legibility over time. Applying stickers compromises that protective layer, introduces issues with long-term adhesion, and makes the signs more vulnerable to tampering, fading, or peeling. For these reasons, replacing the signs ensures clarity, consistency, and durability across the Downtown Paid Parking Program.
o I had communicated through the City Manager that we should consider keeping paid parking on one block of El Camino, south of Taylor Avenue around Kiosk #71. Parking in this area appears well utilized and it’s likely that the majority of the relatively small amount of revenue collected on El Camino was collected on this block. Is it possible to get data just for this meter to corroborate this?
Responses to City Council Agenda Packet Questions
May 27, 2025
2 • RESPONSE:
Yes, transaction data is available for the three southernmost meters on El Camino Real, which includes the area near Kiosk #71 (between Taylor Ave and Crystal Springs). From April 2024 to March 2025, these three meters recorded approximately 2,900 transactions and $5,100 in total revenue.
This represents approximately 25% of the total El Camino Real meter revenue. While this supports the observation of relatively higher use on that block, staff cautions that there is not a direct correlation between meter collections and actual parking utilization at any single location. Since the meters aren’t correlated to spots it may not be an accurate assumption of space/block utilization. As such, any proposal to maintain paid parking selectively would require further study to assess broader impacts and ensure consistency with Council's directive to remove all paid parking from El Camino Real.
o How does the $0.65 per transaction fee for using LAZ mobile app stack up against fees charged in other cities? Does this number include the credit card processing fee? If yes, can we get a breakdown of that fee?
• RESPONSE:
The $0.65 per transaction quote from LAZ Parking for their mobile app does not include credit card processing fees. These are typically separate and may vary by provider and volume of use. Staff has put a request in for a price breakdown, however LAZ’s pricing is based on the City’s transaction volume and is proprietary, meaning internal breakdowns of how the $0.65 is calculated are not publicly available. Staff have not conducted a comparative study of fees across other cities; instead, to ensure cost competitiveness, an RFP for mobile parking app services is being issued. This will allow the City to evaluate market rates and potentially negotiate more favorable terms.