More Free Parking

Following a catered dinner at the Joyce Beers Community Center, the June 8 Hillcrest Town Council Meeting got under way.

A panel of three voiced their opinions and answered questions pertaining to the issue of parking challenges facing the community. The parking panel consisted of: Carol Schultz (director of the Uptown Partnership), Nick Moede, (Hillcrest Business Association VP and a local business owner), and Leo Wilson (chair of the Uptown Planners and Banker’s Hill/Park West Community Association).

Two motions regarding the parking issue were proposed. The first issue involved the removal of parking meters from Hillcrest; the second involved more free parking and fewer meters.

“If we’re talking about parking meters,” said Wilson, “I think we need to either, A, have a policy where they’re spread throughout the city; or, B, maybe we do need to revisit the issue of should we just have them in Uptown.”

Moede said, “We do have a parking problem here in Hillcrest, as I think everybody here knows. There’s a real scarcity of spaces and it’s a problem for business owners because people that are coming from outside the area that want to come to the businesses need to find parking and requiring people to pay for that parking is one way to control it.”

Though approximately 45 percent of funds generated from parking meters in Hillcrest are spent in the neighborhood, many residents are frustrated that areas of North Park, Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, and La Jolla have no meters. Wilson referred to this as a “competitive disadvantage.”

Outcome: Hillcrest residents voted 15-13 in support of removing parking meters from Hillcrest; a second motion, for more free parking and fewer meters, passed 17-6.

For video of the meeting, click here.