Residential Permit Parking Program
As a parking solution in East Palo Alto, the 2020 Mobility Study recommended a permit parking program. As part of the study, a draft program was introduced on a very high level.
The mobility study suggests that implementing a permit parking program would have many benefits including:
- Equitably allocating on-street parking spaces among neighborhood residents.
- Encouraging residents to use available off-street parking spaces (in garages and driveways).
- Encouraging residents to sell/donate excess vehicles.
- Generating revenue to fund parking enforcement.
As recognized in the mobility study, parking problems occur in all East Palo Alto neighborhoods. Furthermore, staff regularly receives parking complaints from residents. The City Council also receives parking complaints and realizes that the City needs to administer policy solutions to improve parking in neighborhoods. The City Council supports a permit parking program as one potential way to improve parking and directed staff to prioritize the launch of such a program through its Strategic Priority process.
Staff presented an initial draft residential permit parking ordinance to the Public Works and Transportation Commission (PWTC) at the December 20th, 2023 meeting. At the meeting, staff received comments from the PWTC and members of the public. Comments were incorporated into the updated draft ordinance. On April 17th, 2024, the City’s transportation consultant, Hexagon Transportation Consultants, Inc. (Hexagon) presented the updated residential permit parking program ordinance to the PWTC. Hexagon responded to questions and comments made by the public and the PWTC. Staff and Hexagon returned to the PWTC and presented a refined draft permit parking ordinance at the May 15th 2024 meeting.
The Permit Parking program would establish a procedure to implement a permit parking area (PPA) anywhere in the City. The draft residential permit parking program details the process of designating and establishing a PPA, the issuance of permits and guest permits, enforcement, and the removal of a PPA. The City is working on establishing a permit parking procedure. A public information/community meeting will be held at the 11/12/2024 at the City Council Special Session. At the meeting additional information and next steps on the adoption process will be discussed.
Residents may also submit feedback via the survey posted here.
The draft ordinance can be found here.
The draft ordinance guidelines can be found here.
The draft program FAQ can be found here.
Questions? Questions can be sent to Senior Engineer, Batool Zaro, at bzaro@cityofepa.org.
