San Juan Bautista City Council discusses downtown vacancies and parking

Lea este articulo en español aquí. 

The San Juan Bautista City Council debated possible changes to the city’s Third Street business district regulations. One consideration is a tax to force landlords of vacant buildings to bring them back into service. Another is whether to reopen a discussion City Manager Don Reynolds began in 2019 to institute a parking plan that would include creating parking lots and instituting street parking fees.

Reynolds opened his presentation by saying that since the city now has full-fledged enforcement available, a nominal parking rate would be of more use in raising revenue for improvements than the issuing of parking tickets.

Councilmember Leslie Jordan spoke in favor of creating parking within the city, saying that the people visiting for events are getting tickets when there is no place to park and their cars touch a crosswalk or red zone.

Jordan said,“It’s like we are saying, ‘Come to our wonderful event in San Juan and by the way, we are going to give you a parking ticket for attending this festival.’”

A preliminary study of privately owned lots was completed in June 2019 by Harris & Associates, who identified five possible public parking lots within a block of the Third Street district:

Permit parking on Mariposa. Photo by Robert Eliason.

• Lot 1: Vacant lot at the corner of Muckelemi and Third Street (across from Glad Tidings Church)
• Lot 2: Closed parking lot at the corner of Mariposa and Fourth Street (next to Smoke Point BBQ)
• Lot 3: Closed parking lot behind 301 Third Street (Formerly Lois’s Unique Home Furnishing)
• Lot 4: Vacant lot at 403 Fourth Street (next to Smoke Point BBQ)
• Lot 5: Vacant lot at 39 Washington Street (formerly an antique store and Chinese restaurant that burned down in 2013)

These lots, since they are privately owned, Jordan noted, are not traditionally open for parking, even during city events.

Several council members pointed out that parking is less of an issue than vacant buildings which, according to Jordan, are having an impact on tourism and the local economy.

“When there are at least three empty storefronts on every block, why would people come to the city?” Jordan said. “Most business owners are cutting their hours because people are not coming here. I don’t know if there is enough here for people to look at.”

Reynolds, in his discussion on vacancy, cited the “broken windows” theory, a social science model which suggests that signs of disorder or disrepair only encourage more damage to be done. 

”One unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, wrote Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo, “and so breaking more windows costs nothing.”
Councilmember Jackie Morris-Lopez said the owners of vacant lots should be held accountable.

“If you buy a property on a historic street like our small town,” she said, “there are certain responsibilities you have as a property owner that should be made clear by the city. That extends to housing—I see vacant homes and boarded-up windows.”

Councilmember E.J. Sabathia said he perceived the council was less interested in dealing with the parking issue as a priority and more interested in finding a way of reducing the vacancy rate. 

“My preference would be a vacancy ordinance, then a parking plan, then shop facade improvements,” he said. “General everyday parking is not the issue, and perhaps we can roll in language in a vacancy ordinance to attack the lack of special event parking.”

The 2022 City Council Report provided an estimate of the yearly revenue that could be generated by taxing vacant properties:

• At 2% vacancy: $66,900 ($3,000 a parcel) or $133,800 ($6,000 a parcel)
• At 5% vacancy: $167,250 ($3,000 a parcel) or $334,500 ($6,000 a parcel)
• At 8% vacancy: $267,600 ($3,000 a parcel) or $535,200 ($6,000 a parcel)

City staff was directed to create a vacancy ordinance initiative for the November election ballot, which would require passage by at least a two-thirds majority vote.

In other news, Reynolds reported that La Casa Rosa’s permit was extended to June 30, and that the owner had retained a local contractor to complete the infrastructure repairs. He also reported that improvements to the former Neil’s Market at 54 Muckelemi Street were slowly being completed and that he had been in touch with the owners to ensure the city’s right of way was being respected during the work. 

As previously reported, the council also approved street closures from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Feb. 26-28 for the upcoming film shoot in the area of Mission Plaza.

Map of the shoot location. Courtesy of the City of San Juan.

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