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842 Palm Garage to restore gates; city consolidates on-street mobile payment to single app
Summary
City staff said new gate technology and license-plate recognition will be installed at 842 Palm Garage next week with ambassadors to assist visitors; the city will also consolidate on-street mobile payments to the PayByPhone app and monitor adoption before removing other apps.
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — City staff told the San Luis Obispo City Council on March 18 that the 842 Palm Garage will be returned to a gated entry system next week and that the city plans to consolidate on-street mobile parking payments to a single vendor.
Assistant City Manager Scott Collins and Public Works Director Matt Horne described the operational changes and outreach plans. Collins said components of the garage upgrade include new gates, a kiosk, booth wrap and license-plate recognition tied to permits; staff expect the garage to remain open during construction.
“We're targeting next week, but we're doing a soft transition,” Collins said. “As we implement the the new parking system, the gated system will be obviously, up and visible to everyone, but we'll have a bunch of parking ambassadors out there to help people, work through it.”
Horne said the city will monitor the on-street zone identification and adjust signage or curb painting where needed after switching to a single mobile-payment app called PayByPhone.
“I think we're in a trial and error stage still and so as we move to the 1 app system we'll we'll implement that. If we're still having zone issues we can paint stuff on the sidewalk or put some more stickers up,” Horne said. “We are combating the over-signage of many different things and so this not having too much information out there. But as we implement the 1 app solution if we're still having confusions about zones we can definitely mark them in some appropriate way.”
City staff said the new Palm Garage system will allow multiple payment options (walk-up kiosk, contactless phone payments such as Apple or Android Pay, or payment at the gate on exit). Permit holders’ access will be tied to license-plate recognition so drivers who forget a ticket can exit by plate verification. Staff also said additional parking staff will be present in the first weeks after launch to answer questions and gather feedback; the city plans a short survey to refine operations before applying the gated/pilot approach to the other two city garages later in the year.
On on-street parking, staff said the city will promote PayByPhone (branded as “Pay by Phone”) through signage downtown, a business toolkit, and an education campaign including rack cards and social media. During the transition the two previously supported apps, Honk and ParkMobile, will still be accepted until at least 80% of transactions are made via the PayByPhone app.
No formal council action was required for the update; councilmembers asked clarifying questions about zone markings, the timing of the Palm Garage transition, and the presence of ambassadors. Staff said they will return to adjust or add markings if confusion persists and that ambassadors have eased past transitions to new systems.
Speakers quoted in this article were present at the March 18 meeting and included Assistant City Manager Scott Collins and Public Works Director Matt Horne.
