No enforcement planned as parking remains open to public and employees
PASO ROBLES — During its Tuesday, June 17, meeting, the Paso Robles City Council held a second reading for amendments to the municipal code regarding the employee parking permit program. Back in December 2024, the City Council requested staff to return in June to further discuss the employee parking permits, which expired officially on Jan. 1, 2025.
The program, which reserved four city-owned parking lots for downtown employees, was originally created to ease demand for on-street parking. However, following the discontinuation of the city’s paid on-street parking system, the city lost the enforcement tools and staff infrastructure necessary to maintain the permit program. No new permits have been issued since the start of the year, and enforcement has ceased. The employee permit parking lots were located at Spring Street and 12th Street; 12th Street adjacent to Marv’s Pizza; the alley between Pine Street and Railroad Street, between 13th and 12th streets; and at 12th Street and Railroad Street.
The Paso Robles Main Street Association has spoken in favor of the parking lots remaining “employee preferred” spots.
President of Main Street Board and local business owner Jeffry Wiesinger explained having the spots marked as employee preferred would acknowledge that employees need reserved spots but that they can still work as an honor system.
“We would like to see the City of Paso Robles still demonstrate a goodwill gesture, along with the Main Street Association, that we are concerned about employee parking and would like to be able to use the sign, get away from the terminology that seems to be so negative,” said Wiesinger.
However, Mayor John Hamon disagreed, not seeing the point to having a sign designate the spots as for employees or the public.
“It’s public parking. Anyone that’s public, including employees, is public now and can park there now without any regulation,” said Hamon.
Former Glenair employee Pat Banakis agreed that the parking lots should be public, feeling that it should be up to the business owners to direct their employees where to park
“I think the parking lots should just be available to people,” Banakis shared. “I think the responsibility should be on the businesses, not on the city to try to control who can park where.”
Councilmember Steve Gregory made a motion to approve the third option presented by staff: implement “Employee Preferred Parking” signage in the Spring Street and 12th Street, 12th Street adjacent to Marv’s Pizza, Alley between Pine Street and Railroad Street, and 12th Street and Railroad Street lots and affirm that there will not be any ability for the Police Department to enforce non-employees from parking in these parking lots.
However, he amended the option to change the sign verbiage to “Employee and Public Preferred Parking.” He explained that this should alleviate any confusion between the public and employees trying to find parking downtown. His motion was seconded by Councilmember Fred Strong and then approved with a 4-1 vote, Hamon voting no.
The next Paso Robles City Council meeting is scheduled for July 15 at 6 p.m.
