SAN DIEGO — San Diego is now one step closer to adding parking meters in the busy restaurant-filled Convoy District in Kearny Mesa and near the world's busiest land border crossing in San Ysidro.
Today, December 5, San Diego City Council voted to establish parking districts in both areas in hopes of boosting the parking supply and improving parking turnover in the busy areas.
The Kearny Mesa and San Ysidro Community Parking Districts are the sixth and seventh Community Parking Districts in San Diego, joining Downtown, Mid-City, Uptown, Pacific Beach and Old Town.
Kearny Mesa Parking District
With dozens of busy and popular restaurants, San Diego's Convoy District is now the center of the city's culinary cross-streets.
However, with more and more San Diegans commuting to Convoy for a good meal, parking has become a major issue.
The city, as well as some businesses along the busy stretch of Kearny Mesa say one way to improve the parking problems is 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.
San Ysidro Parking District
CBS 8 first reported on the proposal to create a Community Parking District on December 4.
As proposed, the parking district would encompass the area north of the San Ysidro Port of Entry along Beyer Boulevard northeast to Dairy Mart Road and then west to Camino de la Plaza before heading southeast back to the border.
In a quest to boost parking inventory, the proposed San Ysidro Community District could implement time-limited parking spaces as well as metered parking.
Implementing paid and time-limited parking. according to a city-commissioned study in November 2022, will improve parking availability, bring more foot traffic to local businesses, and dissuade long-term parking in the area.
