SAN LUIS OBISPO – In a unanimous vote, the city council decided to start charging for parking on Sundays and increase street meter fees starting in July to raise money for a new parking structure.
Sunday street and structure parking fees will begin at 1 p.m. and on-street meter rates will increase from $1.25 to $1.50 an hour.
"It's going to cost us about $20 million to build that parking garage so we're looking at some of the efforts that might add to the dollars that we need to support that garage," said City Council Member Kathy Smith.
In order to complete the project, council considered options to raise the funds.
"So many people, myself included, come down here on Sundays and that's the beauty of coming down here is not having to pay," said Shannon Chamberlin of San Luis Obispo.
"I'm kind of indifferent about it, said Arthur Anderton. "It would kinda be just like any other day wouldn't it? They charge every other day so we're kind of used to it."
City Council Member Smith said charging for parking on Sundays is an idea that has been suggested and turned down before.
"We don't want people to be unhappy and Sunday has been kinda the happy day downtown because we don't have any parking fees anywhere," she said.
Another idea the council voted for is to increase the on-street parking meter rate but leaving structure rates the same.
"So who cares it's just another quarter," said Anderton with a laugh.
"Our economy is going through a lot of changes and people just kinda have to understand that," said Joel Deering. "A lot of people have a hard time doing that."
