The Business First Advisory Committee discussed paid parking on Tuesday, June 30.
But the committee didn’t make any formal recommendations.
Any formal recommendations would have to go to the City Council for approval.
The only formal decision the Citizen-Council Business First Advisory Ad Hoc Committee made last week was for the Business First Committee to meet on the fourth Wednesday of each month, except in July when the committee will meet on the fifth Wednesday of the Month.
Community Development Director Shaun Temple, a member of the Business First Committee, told everyone present that there was on actual decision being made that night. “Staff received input from the committee that staff will take under consideration as they continue to process this project,” Temple said.
According to Temple, the committee members want to take time to consider the matter and potentially talk to business owners for more input, and potentially bring the matter back at a future date.
Julie Dixon, president and founder of Dixon Resources Unlimited, gave a presentation to the Business First Committee arguing for paid parking. Dixon has long recommended paid parking on Main Street.
According to her presentation, business owners and employees arrive earliest when parking is first-come, first-served. According to Dixon’s presentation, Main Street and Ocean Avenue are at greater than 85% parking occupancy by 8 to 10 a.m., before many Main Street businesses are open.
According to Dixon, business owners fear that paid parking or time limits will cost them customers. Also according to Dixon, the data shows parking turnover creates more customer visits per day.
One idea Dixon said she liked to lwould be everage a mobile appl. She suggested discounts for the Chamber of Commerce or business associations.
Police Chief Michael Henderson read a message from District Five Councilman Nathan Steele arguing in favor of paid parking. Steele, who has expressed support for paid parking in the past,
“Seal Beach faces a projected $15 million deficit over five years, with costs rising 7% annually against 2% revenue Growth,” according to Steele. He estimated Main Street paid parking could generate $762,120 a year.
Steele proposed paid curb parking, giving locals a discount, creating an employee parking alternative program, and forming a Business Improvement District to reinvest parking revenue directly into Main Street.
“The Business 1st Committee has taken on the issue of some type of paid parking on Main Street, and heard a presentation by our City’s parking consultant. I think the Committee will give serious attention to this issue and come up with a thoughtful response,” wrote District One Councilman Joe Kalmick, who is a member of the committee.
“I’m exhausted from watching and listening to people with skin in the game advising the city on how to spend taxpayer money, from Raftelis pushing the lies of shovel ready jobs that are not only not shovel ready but more than doubling in price from 3.5 Million to 8 million plus , to contractors like KYA misrepresenting the extent of the resurfacing at our tennis courts to council to get the contract and now Dixon who have a financial stake in the move to paid parking pushing that over the hump. Nobody seems to speak for the people funding all this because a fixed majority of council are enamored with these ‘experts’ who are far from impartial,” wrote James Jensen when asked for a comment. Jensen is a frequent critic of city officials. Jensen replied by email.
“I’ll think about the takeaway from DIXON but it was more of the same, DATA being manipulated to yield the results they want rather than allowed to be scrutinized to find where the truth actually lies. The actual experience of our town with this is very poor. Those paid lots are not heavily used for many reasons none of which were discussed and the lot on first street which has a legitimate history of massive failure was dismissed as an anomaly. Businesses that already pay for parking for their customers will essentially be paying again and penalizing residents who are already paying more in taxes, more in our water/sewer bills extra fees to simply run down to Bay Hardware and pick up something for our homes is salt in the wounds,” Jensen wrote.
Rob Jahncke, a Main Street business owner and past member of the (now disbanded) Parking Advisory Committee, opposed paid parking on Main in response to a Sun question. The council received the Parking Committee’s recommendation, including the group’s opposition to paid curb parking on Main, in 2024. (See “City Council receives Parking Committee recommendations” at sunnews.org.)
“It appeared to me that the case being presented to the committee was grossly exaggerating the problem to better justify a new paid parking program,” Jahncke wrote in his text.
“Secondly, although they denied it multiple times, this is a revenue grab,” Jahncke wrote.
“Which is further supported by Councilman Steele’s submitted report that listed paid parking benefit of about $750,000 to the city,” Jahncke wrote.
Businesswoman Rosie Ritchie, a member of the Business First Committee, raised concerns about the technology used for paid parking. “Understanding the direction the City would like to move forward with regarding parking, I believe there are several steps we should take to troubleshoot and implement solutions that address the recurring issues we experience with the parking system at the Beach lot. For example, daily outages frequently prevent the system from functioning, resulting in the same operational challenges on a daily basis. These outages also lead to lost business, as customers become frustrated when they are unable to pay for parking and choose to leave instead of receiving a ticket,” Ritchie wrote in an email.
“Before moving forward with expansion or additional implementation, I believe it would be beneficial to first address these ongoing reliability issues so the system can operate consistently, provide a better customer experience, and support the City’s parking objectives,” Ritchie wrote.
Committee Member Steven Riggs, participating remotely, said paid parking was inevitable.
During the meeting, Peter Magalhaes, a member of both the Business First Committee and the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, also expressed the opinion that paid parking on Main was inevitable. He said he had faith in the committee and that the collaboration could do something in the spirit of compromise and would reinvest in the Main Street District.
“To date for FY 2025-26 the City has received net $1,251,926.39 in beach parking revenue,” according to a July 7 email from Finance Director/Treasurer Barbara Arenado.