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Say goodbye to 15-cent hourly parking in Old Town, everybody! The City of Eureka is looking to bring its metered system into the 21st Century by shifting to an app-based pay-to-park platform with expanded monitoring and a new rate of $1.10 per hour, which includes a 75-cent hourly fee and a 35-cent transaction fee. The program is expected to roll out in the coming months.

At last night’s Eureka City Council meeting, Public Works Project Manager Jay Wortelboer presented staff’s plans to contract with Passport Parking, a North Carolina-based digital parking compliance platform, to “improve efficiency and utilization” of city-owned parking lots in Old Town and downtown Eureka. 

“Public parking in Old Town and downtown Eureka has seen little change over the last several decades,” Wortelboer explained. “This lack of progress has led to ongoing issues with lot maintenance, inconsistent enforcement, and outdated regulations. The city has received feedback from business owners expressing concerns about long-term parking limits negatively impacting local businesses, as well as a lack of enforcement throughout both Old Town and our downtown parking districts.”

The new system will implement an hourly fee in metered parking zones, depicted in orange in the map below, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, excluding national holidays. While the current fee is set at $1.10, the city’s fee schedule would allow staff to increase the hourly rate to $3. The increased rates would not apply to Old Town/downtown residents and employees who’ve purchased a parking permit from the city.

If you’ve visited any major city in recent years, you’ve surely come across one of these “smart” mobile parking systems that prompt users to either scan a QR code or download an app to pay for parking. In this case, users have to create an account on the Passport Parking app — conveniently linked here if you’re feeling proactive — locate the designated parking zone, enter their payment information, license plate number and anticipated length of stay. 

“You can receive alerts before your meter expires, extend time and view all your parking history [on the mobile app],” Wortelboer said. “Passport allows multiple payment methods, [including] Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. Additionally, we are in the process of setting up a cash pay option here at City Hall for prepay or anybody who likes to pay [with] cash.”

City staff will monitor payment and parking permit status in “digitally chalked zones” by scanning license plates. Citations can be paid or disputed through the app or to the city directly.

Cal Poly Humboldt is one of more than 800 cities and institutions that use Passport Parking for mobile meter enforcement, Wortelboer said, adding that the university charges $1.50 per hour for on-campus parking.

Following staff’s presentation, Councilmember Scott Bauer asked how much revenue the new metering system is expected to generate and how the funds will be spent. 

City Engineer Jesse Willor said most of the funds will go toward parking lot upkeep and deferred maintenance. “As you can tell, going from $0.15 an hour for years and years and years … that program wasn’t making money,” he continued. “I mean, you can see [the parking lots and signs] haven’t changed a lot in a long time.”

The funds would also cover the cost of a full-time parking enforcement employee, Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery added.

The new parking system is expected to roll out “in a few months,” Willor said. Once the program is implemented, staff will shift focus to on-street parking.

“We’re a little hesitant to jump right into the on-street stuff, given that we need to take care of our [parking] lots … to make sure that [the] next phase is rolled out in an efficient way that [is] beneficial to the community,” he said. “I do think that we want to be very quick on that turnover, because all of a sudden you’re going to see … these increases in the cost of parking in the parking lots and … free on-street parking. It’s going to shift parking around the city.”

The council agreed to receive the report but did not take any formal action on the item.