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Published on 08/14/1995 All articles from this issue

Los Altos parking committee asks to restore 3-hour lots

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By Clyde Noel / Town Crier Staff Writer

The Los Altos Parking 2000 Committee is recommending the city council return parking limits in the north and south plaza areas to three hours after the council limited parking to two hours in March.

The committee's recommendation last Thursday was prompted by beauty salon owners on Main Street who attended the Parking 2000 meeting. The merchants requested the change back to three hours because they said a combination of pedicures, manicures and shampoo sets can not be accomplished in a two-hour period.

"The goal of this committee is to be customer friendly, " said Mel Kahn, chair of the Parking 2000 committee. "At this time, the two-hour parking is not the way to go."

Ron Gruenwald, Los Altos city engineer, reported the city is having success in getting employees and store owners to use the all-day parking area instead of parking in time parking zones.

"These are the games people play," Kahn said. The report shows there are still a significant number of employee cars that park in the time zones.

"We know who the employees are who park their cars in the time zones," said Los Altos police officer Rich McKim. "It's obvious when you check parking spots day after day."

"We are knit-picking here and knit-picking there and we are not getting anywhere," said committee member Jim Dozier. "There is no getting around it, we need a parking structure. You have to make some people unhappy and you might as well start to make them unhappy now."

Kent Nelson, president of Los Altos Village Association, said the committee should pursue the one-day, all-day customer parking permit.

"We should market and pursue these permits that will give your customers another option so they can park in town all day," Nelson said.

Gruenwald reviewed the parking duck-out program and said four locations were completed and four more duck-outs were going to be installed in the pilot program.

Los Altos City Council member Patti Williams asked why there was no parking time limit signs on the duckouts. "There should be time zones on duck-outs because people park in these spaces all day long," she said.

Penny Lave, president of the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce, suggested a 30-minute limit be placed on duck-outs since they are generally in front of existing businesses.

The discussion for a need for an employee permit parking system was postponed until the September meeting. "We need to redefine our goals on where we should put the employees parking and whether we need an employee permit parking system," Kahn said.