SAN DIEGO — Parking in the Convoy District can be a challenge.
Now, City of San Diego leaders are trying to come up with ways to make it easier.
On Dec. 5, the city council will consider a proposal from the city's sustainability and mobility department to make Kearny Mesa a community parking district, which could give them the ability to make certain changes, including adding parking meters.
In a staff report to the council council, the department said it’s in response to the area's future growth and transformation.
"The creation of a parking district allows us to have essentially a board that looks at different strategies and revenue mechanisms to pay for some of those strategies," said Chris Cate, with the Asian Business Association.
Cate is a former city council member. So, he's familiar with the process.
He says if approved, that board will consider all options, everything from changing parallel parking spaces into angled ones, to establishing shared parking locations.
"Where we park with businesses when they're off-peak hours to have parking agreements in place and utilize their parking spots for customers, as well as looking at ways to move people in and around Convoy. Can we do people movers, shuttle services that move people around areas? That comes at a cost, so how can we pay for something like that too,” said Cate.
That's where parking meters come in.
“It allows us to have that additional revenue source above and beyond what the city offers to pay for strategies that are focused on Convoy,” said Cate.
Tommy Nguyen, owner of Cross Street Chicken and Beer, likes the idea, saying he believes meters will help with customer turnover.
“I think that will actually be great because we struggle with people parking and leaving their cars overnight,” said Nguyen.
Meters or not, Nguyen says something needs to change as the area becomes more dense.
“There's gonna be residential coming in soon in the next several years, so I think that's really gonna help out and just help the flow of Convoy,” said Nguyen.
If Kearny Mesa does become a parking district, changes won't happen overnight.
Cate says the board will conduct studies and collect input from both the businesses and the people who frequent them.
“We wanna hear from people who love Convoy. What are those solutions that they wanna see and figure out a way to implement those,” said Cate.
WATCH RELATED: What's going on with the vacant Tommy's in Kearny Mesa?