All parking in Paso Robles is officially a free-for-all after the City Council voted to eliminate its employee paid parking program.
Its decision on the matter had been nearly a year in the works after city staff brought the parking program to the council’s attention in August 2024 and said it was more expensive to enforce than it was worth.
At the City Council’s June 17 meeting, City Manager Chris Huot presented options to move forward with the program after the city tabled a decision in December to hear input from stakeholders.
The intention behind the 2018 program, costing employees $5 per month, was an “attempt to encourage employees to avoid parking on those on-street spots,” Huot said. But the program didn’t prevent employees from using the free street parking.
Parking on downtown Paso’s streets hasn’t always been free, though. In 2019 the city also implemented a paid public parking program that was eliminated in May 2024 after public pushback.
Since the December meeting, Huot said that city staff had spoken to the Main Street Association, Travel Paso, Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance, and the Chamber of Commerce, which all opted to eliminate the paid parking program.
What snagged the June 17 discussion wasn’t whether to get rid of the program, but the best way to do that.
Huot proposed some options: To simply eliminate the program and make it public parking, or to eliminate the program and place “employee parking preferred signs” at the 98 designated employee parking spots near 12th and 13th streets.
Preferred parking signs wouldn’t technically prevent anyone from parking there, Huot said, and police couldn’t interfere if the public parked in those spaces.
All stakeholders but the Main Street Association wanted to return the lots to public parking with no signage—the association wanted to install the signs and use “the honor system” for enforcement.
During public comment, former City Councilmember Sharon Roden said she disagreed with the honor system and found signs to be a waste of city dollars.
“The proposed honor system for employee preferred parking is based upon deceit and deception. There’s nothing that prohibits anyone, employees, business owners, tourists, or residents, from parking where they choose to park downtown,” Roden said. “Unless someone calls to complain, are these spots even enforced?”
Resident Linda George said she also took issue with the word “preferred,” and said, for example, hotel guests could use the lots instead of paying hotel parking fees, while Main Street Association Board President Jeff Weisinger said he felt the opposite, and that installing the signs would be a “good will gesture” from the city.
Councilmember Steve Gregory said he liked the idea of signs, but didn’t like the word “preferred” and suggested using “employee and public parking.” But Councilmember Fred Strong disagreed.
“Anyone else who knows the English language can know that they can park there if that’s where they want to park but it’s preferred for the employees,” he said.
After some back-and-forth between council members, they concluded with a 4-1 vote, Mayor John Hamon opposed, to eliminate the employee paid parking program and install signs that designate the spaces as employee and public parking. Δ
This article appears in Jul 3-13, 2025.