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By Lookout Staff
April 28 -- City officials are hoping that new lower parking
rates at the Main Library and Civic Center will help ease Santa
Monica's parking crunch by luring long-term daily parkers away from
busy Downtown structures.
Under the new rates, which went into effect in January, motorists
can park their cars all day for $3 at the library structure on weekends
and holidays and at the Civic Center structure on non-event weekends
and holidays.
The new rates reduce the amount patrons of the library would pay
if they stay for more than three hours on a weekend, and provides
cheap parking for retail employees who drive to work, relieving
pressure on Downtown parking structures during busy weekend periods.
Opened in January 2006, the structure provided parking for hourly
visitors, library staff and former monthly parkers. Over the past
year, the City increased the number of monthly permits sold to 350
per month by marketing them to people on the Downtown structure
waiting list and to nearby merchants.
The City hopes to boost the number to between 400 and 425 monthly
permits for the structure, which is included as a stop on the holiday
parking shuttle route, and is served by the new Mini Blue Tide Ride
that also serves the Downtown area.
The Civic Center structure will provide parking for the Downtown
when the area’s older facilities are torn down and rebuilt
under an ambitious plan to add 1,700 new spaces over the next decade.
Ultimately, the structure will be needed to serve Civic Center demand.
Beginning in January, staff shifted 278 Santa Monica Place employees
from parking in Structure 5 on weekends to parking in the Civic
Center structure.
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