SAN DIEGO — It will soon be harder to find free parking in Pacific Beach.
Residents and visitors will soon have to pay for parking in high-trafficked areas, leaving some of San Diego's Pacific Beach store owners, neighbors and workers apprehensive about the new parking changes coming next week.
“This is horrible, I don’t know where everyone is going to park when they work there’s such limited spaces. Everyone is ticked off about it," said Ashleigh Hammar, who lives and works in Pacific Beach.
Nearly 200 parking meters have been approved by the city to be installed along busy streets like Garnet Avenue between Mission Boulevard and Fanuel Street. There’ll also be meters along Cass, Hornblend and Bayard Streets.
“Not a lot of people have parking in the backs of their shops or anywhere so I feel like it might be a struggle," said Jacob Goodwin, with the San Diego Tattoo Company on Garnet Ave.
“For the disabled parking – that’s another problem," added Mohammad Almahdawi, owner of Mr. Shawarma.
The city says the parking meters will help parking turnover for businesses.
“It’s probably beneficial just to try to keep the people flowing in and out. Some people might not like it but just so it keeps people moving and cars from staying there all day I feel like it’ll be better for the businesses," said Goodwin.
Other businesses say it will only keep people away.
“They’ll cause a lot of these people to either not come at all and park here or they’re going to park on the side streets which is all residential areas so its going to cause a lot more of a jam," said manager of Cabo Cantina, Alex Amm.
Those who live in the area say paying to park will force people to park in neighborhoods instead.
“When I go home I’m not going to find a parking spot either. So it’s just going to create havoc everywhere," said Hammar.
The meters won’t break the bank. They will cost drivers $1.25 an hour, with a maximum of two hours allowed. Meters will be in effect from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
The city expects them to be operational by early November.
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