The San Diego City Council on Monday voted to take control of 100% of the funds collected by parking meters, after decades of revenue sharing with outside entities.
The council voted to raise parking meter rates earlier this year in anticipation of a severe budget shortfall. Since then, roughly $0.15 of every dollar collected by meters has gone to "community parking districts." San Diego has seven such districts, although only four of them actually have parking meters.
Most of the parking districts are run by business groups such as the Little Italy Association, Gaslamp Quarter Association and Discover Pacific Beach. Recent audits have questioned whether the districts are simply an extra layer of bureaucracy.
Parking districts collectively spend about 35% of their budgets on administrative costs, which the city's Transportation Department said is excessive. Officials also say some parking districts have failed to produce invoices for certain expenses and lack procedures for good governance, such as competitive bidding for subcontractors.
The council voted 8-1 to suspend their policy of sharing revenue with parking districts through June 2027. That frees up roughly $1.8 million that the Transportation Department said it will start spending immediately on overtime for city electricians to fix broken streetlights in parking meter zones.
An additional $5.67 million was kept by the parking districts in reserve accounts. City officials said they will be presenting the council with options for how to spend that balance in the coming months.
"By pausing — not eliminating — by pausing the community parking district program for two years, and letting the city manage the parking revenue for two years, we are giving the city an opportunity to prove that it can quickly deliver improvements to neighborhoods with parking meters, while ensuring it also reflects community priorities," said Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, whose district includes the vast majority of parking meters.
Councilmember Kent Lee cast the lone "no" vote, saying he wanted to give a new parking district in Kearny Mesa the opportunity to get up and running.
Several weeks ago, Mayor Todd Gloria's office had proposed permanently dissolving the city's community parking districts. But that proposal was withdrawn in an apparent effort to win over support from the districts themselves.
Benjamin Nicholls, the executive director of the Hillcrest Business Association who has served on the board of the Uptown Community Parking District, said he supported the action "begrudgingly."
"Uptown must receive tangible community improvements above and beyond what is provided outside parking meter districts," Nicholls said. "We need to see streetlights repaired, we need to see curb and sidewalks and repairs, trip hazards removed and curbs repainted."
