The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for downtown businesses. City of Los Altos staff has prepared guidelines to assist shoppers and employees in finding a parking place.
Parking is available in almost any block, if you shop before 11 a.m. or after 2 p.m.
If the parking plazas are crowded, try using the joint-use zones immediately behind the Main Street stores in the South Plaza and the State Street stores in the North Plaza.
A new parking area with 58 additional parking spaces is now open for public use at 230 First St. The lot is located between First Street and Foothill Expressway, from Nielsen's Cleaners to the Safeway lot.
The all-day parking areas in the north and south parking plazas are intended for employee/employer use. Merchants or employees should not park in the time zone areas in any plaza block, as they are intended for customer use.
The Lincoln Park parking area is available for all-day parking. If there are no all-day parking stalls available in the plazas, try this area, located just beyond the Chamber of Commerce building across Foothill Expressway.
All-day customer parking permits are available for purchase by business owners to provide free to customers. Use of these permits is limited to customers only.
Merchants should ask employees to park in the designated all-day parking areas.
Employees parking in the time zones are occupying valuable parking spaces intended for customers.