SEBASTOPOL — Downtown Sebastopol employees can take a break from
playing musical chairs, as they will no longer need to move their
cars every three hours — if they park in an unreserved space
located in what is known as the Chamber lot, or Railroad lot.
Not to be confused with the Burnett Street parking lot; the
Chamber lot — bounded by the mortuary, the Sebastopol Chamber of
Commerce and the orange rail car — was previously available for
renting only.
However, only nine of the 34 spaces in the lot were being
rented, leaving 25 unused, unrented spaces, Sebastopol Police Chief
Jeff Weaver said last week when the spaces were opened up.
“So the idea was, through the holidays and beyond until a more
thorough parking review is done in January, we would open these
unrented spaces to untimed, unrestricted use,” he said, noting,
each of the nine rented spaces has been identified with a barricade
and sign.
While the other 25 unrented spaces are open to anybody, the hope
is that downtown employees will use these spaces to free up other
closer spaces for customers, Weaver said.
“Employees downtown are parking right by the place where they
work which is taking space away from people who want to do
business. They are coming out and moving their cars every three
hours to different spaces, but they are still occupying those
spaces during the times they work,” said Sebastopol City
Councilmember Kathleen Shaffer, who put the item on the agenda, due
to the fact that “parking is such an issue” in town.
Like Weaver, Shaffer hopes to see the now available spaces in
the Chamber lot used by downtown employees, which will free up some
of the spaces closer to businesses, for shoppers.
“I am very happy we have people working and they have jobs, but
they might not if they keep taking those spaces and shoppers drive
away,” she said. “We want a successful holiday sales season for all
the businesses. The more people we can get in town, give them a
place to park, hopefully that is going to mean more sales for the
businesses.”
Randy Coffman, who is on the city’s Business Outreach Committee,
and manager of Creative Property Services in Sebastopol, echoed
Shaffer’s sentiments. Some downtown employees “come outside every
few hours with multiple keys and play musical cars,” Coffman said.
“I am looking at it, Tamberlane is looking at it, as we are losing
customers ‘cause people aren’t able to park,” he said.
At a recent city council meeting Coffman suggested to city
council that they also open the 12 vacant spaces in the public
parking lot across the street from the Veteran’s Memorial Building.
Only 14 of the lot’s 26 rentable spaces are being reserved,
according to Coffman.
However, because the item was not on the agenda, the council
could not accept his proposal, he said.
Local parking spaces could get more scare, pending the results
of a parking review currently underway. At a city council meeting
in October, the council instructed city staff to do a study of
utilization of parking throughout Sebastopol to consider
alternative uses for the spaces — which “makes no sense” to
Coffman.
“Why are we counting parking spots and looking at affordable
housing? Why are we looking at utilizing parking spots when we have
a lack of them in town? Why is the city manager not working on
‘wayfinding signs’ to help those consumers know where to park?” he
said, noting for example, a lot of people don’t realize there is
public parking at the movie theater across from the police
station.
“Wayfinding signs would point out public parking in our
designated areas, slow traffic down, let people know where they
could park, and get them to utilize our local businesses. Day after
day you see our local businesses becoming empty storefronts. That
was the goal of my fold out parking signs; to get the consumer to
stop and shop,” Coffman said.
Coffman took it upon himself recently to make signs directing
drivers to Sebastopol’s public parking lots. With the help of
Heather Van Doorn of Starlight Wine Bar and Restaurant, who did the
graphics, and North Bay Signs, Coffman made signs that were placed
at the public lot on Burnettt and Main streets, and also at the lot
at Gravenstein Station on the east side of town.
With the exception of several commuter parking spaces in the
Burnett Street parking lot, most parking in the city of Sebastopol
is still limited to three hours.
