Watsonville installed a meter along Aviation Way hoping to solve parking problems. Four days later, the city removed it

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Watsonville city officials removed a parking meter installed along Aviation Way, just four days after starting a monthlong pilot program that drew immediate pushback from businesses and community members.

Parking meters were installed in two locations – Aviation Way, across from Watsonville Municipal Airport, and downtown, off Rodriguez Street – on April 27 as part of a 30-day pilot program, said city spokesperson Michelle Pulido. The parking meter installed off Rodriguez Street is still operating. 

The meters, she said, are meant to prevent cars from parking for long periods of time in those busy commercial areas and to create more parking turnover. 

There were no costs associated with the pilot program, other than shipping costs when returning the parking meters, said Pulido. 

Parking availability has been an ongoing issue on Aviation Way, according to Travis Nelson, owner of Honeylux Coffee, located in The Hangar near Watsonville Municipal Airport. Since parking is free, it’s all up for grabs, Nelson said, leading to people often parking their cars overnight, sometimes for weeks at a time. 

The Hangar is home to restaurants and cafes such as Slice Project, Beer Mule and Honeylux Coffee, and it’s one of Watsonville’s busiest commercial areas. There are 38 parking spaces on Aviation Way, with an additional parking lot that typically gets filled quickly. 

Trying the parking meter for the 30-day period was a potential solution, said Pulido: “We’re trying to accommodate and try to find ways [to solve the issue]. How do we gather data? How do we see what the trends are happening?”  

The meters gave people 30 minutes of free parking, but after that, they would be charged $1 per hour, Pulido said. “The meters were doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” she said. “But the business owners just felt that’s not the solution.” 

Nelson told Lookout that the city notified businesses only a week before the meter was installed. “It caught everyone very off guard,” he said. “It was like one day we had free parking, and the next, it was like everyone was paying for parking.” 

City officials notified the community of the pilot program on April 23 via various social media platforms, just days before parking meters at both locations were installed. The city later removed the social media posts following overwhelming negative feedback from residents, Nelson said. 

“There were like 80 comments [on the post] and every single one of them was negative,” he said. 

The impact of the parking meter was immediate, said Brando Sencion, owner of pizza shop Slice Project. Almost every customer who came to his shop brought up the parking meter, Sencion said, and other businesses were hearing the same thing. 

“I heard from some of the businesses that people even walked away because they didn’t realize that they had to pay,” Sencion said. He added that businesses also experienced a slow lunch period after the meter was installed. 

If customers want to grab a quick coffee and see that they have to pay for parking, they’re not going to want to pay for an hour if they’ll be there for only 10 minutes, said Nelson. 

“​​They’re already coming in to buy the $10 coffee, and then they have to pay $3 on top of that for parking. It’s just a deterrent, like a big deterrent,” Nelson said. 

Sencion said the city’s idea felt “a little too predatory,” taking advantage of ongoing success of businesses on Aviation Way by essentially taxing people wanting to enjoy those businesses. 

He added that the response by city officials happened quickly. The parking meters were installed on April 27, and by May 1, they had been removed after business owners met with Watsonville City Manager Tamara Vides, he said.

Sencion said he felt relieved that the city removed the meter from Aviation Way, and added that it would’ve done a lot more damage if the city had kept it. 

Following the meeting with Vides, Nelson said the city is looking into converting some of the parking on Aviation Way into spaces with designated limits of four hours or 20 minutes, which he thinks will be much better than the city’s original idea.

It’s perfect, he says, because if people want to grab a drink or dinner, they’ll have plenty of time without worrying about paying. 

“I think it’s going to deter the people who are parking there overnight or leaving their car for days and weeks, which we don’t really want,” Nelson said. 

While the meter on Aviation Way might have been removed, the one installed in downtown Watsonville will continue operating until May 27, when the pilot program is over, said Pulido. “Nothing is set in stone. We’re going to take that data, take the feedback that we’ve gotten from business owners, and try to find different solutions,” she said. 

Sencion, who has another Slice Project location downtown, said a lot of his customers do not use the parking lot that currently has a meter, so he hasn’t seen a direct impact on his business there. However, he told Lookout that he doesn’t think Watsonville’s downtown is “that attractive” to be charging people for parking. 

“I think the city should focus their efforts not on parking enforcement but building a vibrant and attractive downtown to actually bring people in,” Sencion said. “Then they can focus on parking meters, once we have built something worth visiting.” 

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