Features

Commission Gives First OK To Downtown Parking Changes By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday November 22, 2005

Transportation commissioners voted Thursday night to raise the cost of evening parking at the Oxford Street lot and extend the time limits on the new pay and display meters downtown to 90 minutes. 

The final decision on both actions rests with the City Council, which Assistant City Manager for Transportation Peter Hillier said will probably take up the issues at its Feb. 21 meeting. 

The Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA) raised the issue of extending the time cars could park at the city’s new “pay and display” meters downtown, which have so far managed to avoid the best efforts of the Berkeley saboteurs who kept so many of the older meters out of action. 

While a maximum limit of two hours had been suggested, DBA Executive Director Deborah Badhia took no formal position on the length of the extension, and commissioners opted for 90 minutes. 

Commission chair Rob Wrenn had proposed hiking the $2 after 5 p.m. fee for parking at the Oxford Street lot to the $5 charged at the city’s Center Street garage. 

He said the Oxford lot rate had simply been overlooked when the commission voter to raise the fee at Center Street. 

Commissioners approved the 90-minute meter time only in the downtown area, and not for other areas where the new meters are being installed. 

While city staff can extend meter time limits in limited areas, such as along a single city block, extensions over a broader area require approval by the commission and City Council, Wrenn said. 

Hiller said that extending the meter time limit to 90 minutes seemed more in keeping with the changed nature of downtown businesses. 

Wrenn said the increasing numbers of restaurants in the downtown also played a role in the call for extending the limits.a