Clearing the way for more parking in Santa Cruz

The city of Santa Cruz plans to spend $65,000 to demolish a downtown building to make way for a parking lot. City officials said the parking lot is very much needed and drivers will appreciate it. What used to be a thrift store on Front Street in Santa Cruz is now a pile of concrete. Soon, it will be a parking lot. The city of Santa Cruz is demolishing the 6,003 square-foot building because it needs more parking spaces. The building, which the city bought in May 2015, is surrounded on three sides by city-owned parking lots.

“The city is impacted with its parking around the downtown area. We currently have a half-year to five-year wait on our parking permits and our inventory is quite low so we’re looking for ways to expand our existing parking,” civil engineer, Nathan Nguyen said.

Drivers in Santa Cruz said if you go anywhere near Pacific Avenue after 11 a.m. you’ll see car after car circling the block, hoping a parking space will open up.

“I usually can find a spot here or down the road but not today,” Felton resident, Cheryl Ferro said.

Some folks said they don’t like to play the waiting game, so instead they walk.

“Usually the free lots, if there are any, are full so it takes anywhere between 20 and 30 minutes, which is kind of absurd,” Santa Cruz resident Jason Wozniak said.

The new parking lot will add about 25 parking spaces but they won’t be free. Demolition should be completed within a week and then the city will use an additional $85,000 to convert the property into a parking lot equipped with a pay-on-foot station and new lights.

“If that’s what they’re doing here, great. More power to you, I love it,” Ferro said.

Santa Cruz officials said they don’t expect to have the new parking spaces ready to go until summer.

“Where am I going to park?”Ferro said.

Until then, she’s just going to have to hope luck’s on her side when it comes to finding a parking spot.