Blog

Sep 23, 2023

Chico business owners, residents share parking kiosk concerns at meeting

CHICO — Tom Blixt exited a meeting early on Thursday meant to address grievances

CHICO — Tom Blixt exited a meeting early on Thursday meant to address grievances residents and business owners had with the city of Chico's new Passport Parking kiosk system. His reason — he wanted to get to his car before his time was up.

About seven minutes after leaving, Blixt walked back into the council chambers with two pieces of paper in his hand, one with his receipt for the hour and a half he paid for, and the other a ticket despite his early return to his vehicle.

The meeting, hosted by Chico City Councilor Tom van Overbeek and City Manager Mark Sorensen and staff members, was organized as a way to bring in both business owners and their customers to come up with ways to make the transition to the new and controversial parking system easier. Many of the attendees, however, aired frustrations they’ve had with the system and how it's directly affected their customer base.

In Blixt's case, he was attending as a retired resident whose wife owns a business downtown. Like many at the meeting, Blixt was frustrated with the situation and what some felt to be a lack of community outreach before the city entered into a deal with Passport and implemented the kiosks.

Traditional parking meters were removed, and the numbers on the spaces from the previous smart meters were left to fade as the new system requires those who are parking downtown to instead go to a kiosk, input their license plate number and select the amount of time before paying with cash or card. A car with a license plate reader and a connection to the system's database then drives around, checks the numbers and issues tickets as needed. Some portions of the city have 10-hour parking while those closer to the downtown core tend to have two-hour maximums.

Van Overbeek, in his initial presentation, noted that the vast majority of those visiting downtown, roughly 90%, do so via driving and parking.

"That means if we want to have customers, they need a place to park," van Overbeek said, adding that those frequently feeding the meter are taking up parking that could otherwise be used by other customers. "Smart meters allow for two-hour parking enforcement."

Greg Scott, president of the Downtown Chico Business Association, sat with city staff and was available for questions as well. Adding to van Overbeek's presentation, Scott said one of the issues downtown has historically had with parking is with Chico State students inundating much of the lots and spaces as the campus flows directly into downtown.

When opening the meeting up to the public attending, the majority of those who spoke had concerns with the system and shared stories of having to frequently help potential customers along with worries that the system would deter some from going downtown altogether.

Two people at the meeting praised the new system, one of whom showed up about halfway through the meeting and enthusiastically thanked the city before leaving, prompting some to audibly question who she was.

Muir Hughes, co-owner of The Bookstore downtown, asked whether there was any data to show if businesses in cities where Passport was implemented ever recouped losses during the transitional time when many who weren't able to figure out the system, or couldn't get it to work and therefore did not return.

"If it hadn't been successful, they would have taken them out," van Overbeek responded. He added that this system has been put in place throughout other California cities.

Other issues that came up ranged from the 35-cent credit card fee to ways people could abuse the system by adding more money and changing spaces. One thing was made certain: the kiosks are here to stay.

"You can work with us, or you can make the transition more difficult," van Overbeek said.

When Blixt readdressed the staff about his ticket, van Overbeek asked engineer Wyatt West to nullify the ticket after it was inspected and confirmed that an error had occurred, raising further concerns about computer errors forcing people to go through the process of contesting parking tickets.

At the end of the meeting, Deputy City Manager Jennifer Macarthy offered voucher codes for four-hour parking and asked participants to make social media posts encouraging the use of the new meters, using parking vouchers as an incentive for doing so.

As the meeting wrapped up, many attendees were left uneasy. Hughes was one of them, saying that she felt there was a disconnect between the city and downtown businesses.

"This type of transition, maybe to somebody outside of downtown, looks feasible," Hughes said. "But when you’re on the ground, you can see that we’re vulnerable. And this is an important place for our community. We want it to survive."

Business owner Susan Reed, along with The Bookstore co-owner Josh Mills, said the meeting felt late in the game and wished there had been more meetings before taking on the new system.

"It's pretty tough to go into something knowing there really won't be a solution offered other than platitudes," Reed said. "And I’m not trying to say that they’re not trying, but I just feel that as a business owner, we need to find solutions together that is actually something we can change."

In response to questions as to whether the city did enough outreach, Sorensen had previously provided a list of posts, interviews and press releases dating back to December as well as updates given by the Downtown Chico Business Association.

In addition to kiosks, users can download the Passport Parking application on their phones and pay via mobile devices.

A large sheet of paper was placed at the corner of the council chambers on which van Overbeek compiled a list of potential solutions from the crowd.

When grievances were provided, van Overbeek would ask the speaker what they would like to see in order to make the experience better.

The list consisted of a wide array of proposals including paid parking time changes, free parking for those 75 and older, better signs and clear instructions at all kiosks.

One person noted that many of the signs that had previously informed people that they don't have to pay on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays had been removed. West explained that the machines will let people know when they don't need to pay during the off hours.

A push was made by many to adjust the paid parking time, pushing it to 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. as mornings tend to be less congested with vehicles.

Van Overbeek said the city is working on the credit card fee, which was a common complaint in the room. Van Overbeek himself backed many of the suggestions such as free parking for senior citizens and better explanations at the kiosks to help people get through the system faster.

Sign up for email newsletters