May 17, 2010 -- The City Council last week approved a measure to increase parking costs in Downtown Santa Monica. The new rates will go into effect on July 1.

The modifications are based on recommendations from a report issued last fall by Walker Parking Consultants. The higher rates are expected to increase circulation in the parking structures, therefore freeing up spaces and increasing parking availability without having to build new structures.

The maximum daily rate for the Downtown and Civic Center structures was increased from $7 to $9. The flat evening rate will go up from $3 to $5 for Downtown structures. It will remain at $3 for the Main Library and the structures at the Civic Center and Civic Auditorium.

Monthly parking costs will go up from $82.50 to $121 for all structures, except for those keeping the $3 evening fee.

The idea behind keeping the structures located farther from Downtown shopping areas at the cheaper rates is to encourage employees to park there. This would free up more space, and officials hope, put an end to what has been dubbed the “two-hour shuffle.” This is when employees park a little less than two hours for free at the structures, move the vehicle out, then repeat the process.

“Nobody likes the idea that the rate goes up,” Council member Kevin McKeown said at the meeting. “But these are not enormous rate increases.

"What it will do though in the long run is make it more possible for the person who is coming to Downtown … to find the parking they want, wasting less time driving around looking for parking and be able to have a better overall Downtown experience,” McKeown said.

City officials said parking is still cheaper in Downtown Santa Monica than nearly all other similar Southern California shopping areas.

One element of the Walker recommendation that was not implemented was reducing the number of free hours in the daytime from two to one. The Bayside District Corp/ and Downtown merchants had expressed concern about doing this.

Sam Morrissey, Santa Monica’s principal traffic engineer, said more studying must be done before addressing this issue.

“In our rate study of similar shopping and commercial areas in and around Santa Monica, the one thing that all these places have in common is a provision of some kind of free parking,” Morrissey said.

“In order to stay competitive with that, we felt that until we develop some kind of validation system … we will maintain the two hours free and see if there are additional options,” he said.

Council member Bobby Shriver said he disagreed with waiting to reduce the free hours, which he said would make spaces "nearer to the Promenade shops more available to people who are coming to spend money there."

"Getting that going to be studied some more after Walker already studied it sounds to me like sort of bureaucratic,” Shriver said.

When Morrissey told him that keeping the reduced monthly rates at structures such as the Main Library will encourage people to park at those locations, Shriver responded, “Why would they pay $82.50 if they can park for free?”

Other features of the Walker recommendations are in planning or test stages. They include changes to street parking costs, credit card options for meters and valet services.