Parking fee plan at Howarth Park draws fire

After finding a parking spot in the crowded upper parking lot of Howarth Park in east Santa Rosa, Brandy Fletcher unloaded her 2-year-old daughter, Lela, from her car seat and prepared to strap her into her stroller.

Fletcher lives downtown but makes the drive to the popular Summerfield Road park because it's her daughter's favorite.

"She likes to feed the ducks," Fletcher said.

But if the city follows through on a plan to begin charging for parking, Fletcher said she'll have none of it.

"I wouldn't pay to park," Fletcher said. "I'll just park over at the movie theater."

That reaction — a common one among visitors to the city's busiest park — exemplifies one of several challenges facing the city's plan to begin charging drivers $2 to park for two hours or $5 for the entire day.

Neighbors worry that instead of paying up, park visitors will snap up the free parking spaces on surrounding streets and business lots, creating a greater headache than the one the city is trying to solve.

But that's just one of many concerns being raised about the plan. Others include the economic hardship on young families, a drop in park usage that might occur and the perception that the council promised not to pass the fees if the public approved the Measure P sales tax measure, which they did in November.

Thus, the Howarth Park parking fee is shaping up to be one of the most unpopular proposals to come out of City Hall in many years.

"I think it's a crime," said Dean Mitchell, an 81-year-old real estate broker who walks through Howarth and Spring Lake parks at least twice a week.

"It's just been such a wonderful part of this community for so long I'd hate to see it diminished in any way," said Caron Anderson, 70, a retired San Francisco attorney who visits family in the city weekly.

"We consider this a betrayal of the entire community," the owners of the 11 businesses in the Lakeside Shopping Center near the park wrote in a letter to the council.

The rhetoric has been ramped up in advance of the City Council's meeting Aug. 30, when it is scheduled to consider the matter.

The city wants to install nine parking-permit pay stations for the 215 spaces in Howarth Park. It estimates it can generate $520,000 in fee revenue and fines. The program would cost $100,000 initially to launch and $160,000 annually to administer.

The goal is to raise enough revenue to prevent deeper cuts to the city parks and recreation facilities, such as shutting pools or its senior center.

Mayor Ernesto Olivares said he and the council must stay focused on the best interests of the city. He has asked staff to explore other revenue options but said the council must be prepared to make the tough decision.

"If this is the only option we have, it's the only option we have," Olivares said.

The city's financial health remains tenuous, and Olivares thinks it's reasonable for people to be asked to pay a modest fee at a park that everyone agrees is a city jewel. The parking rates are "pretty affordable" when compared to other attractions such as the county fair or going to a movie, he said.