In a shift from just a couple of years ago, the city of Santa Barbara is now encouraging motorists to travel downtown—and at a discounted price.
City staff and the Downtown Parking Committee talked about creating a $70 monthly permit for downtown workers at a recent meeting. According to the proposal, people who work downtown could pay as little as $70 per month to park in Lot 2, which is on the corner of Canon Perdido and Chapala streets.
“The Lot 2, $70, I think that is a great addition,” said committee member Sean Pratt. “I know living here for 30-something years and working downtown for most of that, it’s the No. 1 complaint from employees is parking costs down there.”
The Downtown Parking Committee recently discussed its budget, which is projected at about $11 million for 2027. The effort to lure workers to park downtown with a discounted monthly fee marks a reversal in strategy for the parking department. A couple years ago the city proposed—then retreated—on a plan to slash free parking times downtown and install a pay-by-plate kiosk.
At the time, the city was struggling financially and was looking at ways to boost the budget.
The city provides about 3,215 off-street stalls and 1,200 time-restricted, on-street spaces.
But Ed France, downtown parking and plaza manager, said that the city wants to encourage motorists to do things “the right way.” Right now, people are parking far away in neighborhoods, or shuffling their cars frequently to avoid paying high daily rate fees, which “creates a negative experience.”
“We need to incentivize more downtown frequent users,” France said. “We could have a much bigger base of monthly permit holders.”
The city had previously offered a $70 monthly fee to park at the Cota Commuter Lot, but that is now the site of the future police station.
Pratt, who is also the managing director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, said he supported the discounted fee for downtown employees.
“We already have employees going ‘can we work at the other theater because I don’t want to have to pay for parking,'” Pratt said. “The more we can do that benefits employees, I would encourage.”
The current monthly fee for Parking Lot 2 is $165 and $95 for Paseo Nuevo employees.
Overall, more people are parking in city lots overall, but they are staying for shorter times. France said the proportion of people who are parking for 75 minutes or less has grown over the last few years. One reason for this, he said, is that the 15-and 75-minute parking spaces on downtown streets are full and are pushing those short trip takers to the off-street lots and garages.
“Ideally, We’d have better turnover on-street for short term parking needs,” France said.
Still, he said, “we are so fortunate there has been growth in hourly parking.”
Overall, the city wants to encourage people to park downtown, and pay a discounted rate.
“We need to better incentivize more regular users downtown who are not yet downtown parking customers, or who are infrequent downtown parking customers,” France said.
In a follow-up interview, France said downtown parking is experiencing some good signs.
The Saturday Farmers Market at the corner of Carrillo and State streets is bringing in more people and more revenue than when it was at the corner of Cota and Santa Barbara streets. The new Library Plaza has also proved to be a destination for people.
He said the State Street underpass is bridging the gap between the Funk zone and State Street.
“The 500 block’s new sidewalk dining is thriving, the Film Festival set new attendance records and the lineup of shows between the Granada, New Vic, Arlington and Lobero theatres have been phenomenal,” France said.
