The mobile-pay parking lot at the corner of Third and G streets, one of 13 such lots across downtown, was completely full Thursday afternoon. | Photo by Ryan Burns.

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The City of Eureka’s Passport Parking Program has generated more than $40,000 in revenue since it launched on April 1, with an estimated $30,000 worth of unpaid parking citations that will eventually be collected, according to data provided to the Outpost by city officials.

That adds up to more than $70,000 in revenue for the city in less than four months.

(If you’re wondering whether those unpaid citations will ever be collected, the city’s code enforcement manager points out that if offenders don’t pony up voluntarily, the fees will be obtained through the DMV registration hold process when vehicle owners renew their registrations.)

The Passport Parking Program, which requires app-based pre-payment through your smartphone, charges $1.10 per hour for parking in 13 designated downtown lots between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday (excluding federal holidays). It used to be through 6 p.m., but City Manager Miles Slattery explained that the city shortened the fee period “mainly to accommodate our events in Old Town but also to balance the needs of downtown businesses, employees, residents, and visitors.”

Map adapted from one on the City of Eureka’s website.

The program also allows downtown residents and employees to purchase permits for off-street parking. A permit purchased today would cost $70 and be valid through the end of the year. The city plans to implement on-street parking fees sometime early next year, though only after a presentation to city council and public awareness campaign, according to Slattery.

So far, the city has collected $20,860 via parking permits, with 251 employee permits issued and 46 residential permits. In an email to fellow city staff, Code Enforcement Manager Matt Morgan noted that this annual revenue stream is likely to fluctuate from year to year based on permit sales.

Meanwhile, the city has received $6,982 in parking citation fees — the ones that have actually been paid. And the pay-by-space parking has generated $13,088.

“[I]f the current pay-by-space revenue trend continues, we can conservatively estimate that it will generate approximately $39,000 annually,” Morgan said in his internal email.

Parking availability in downtown Eureka has been a hotly debated topic among locals in recent years as the city works to convert several “underused” lots into housing developments. Expect the debate to continue through the upcoming election season.