Village Parking Wins Big at Council Meeting

It's often easy to feel like city governments do little more than postpone big decisions while talking at great length about the small things.

But that description certainly doesn't fit the Capitola City Council in regards to Thursday night's meeting. In the span of 90 minutes, the council knocked out two big issues: the hotel tax and improved parking in Capitola Village.

An increase of the hotel tax from 10 percent to 12 percent had been proposed for the November ballot. Business owners like , arguing that it would drive away tourists. 

Although the council seemed poised to approve an increase to 11 percent for the November ballot, as Councilmember Dennis Norton said "11 is a lot easier to pass than 12," the issue eventually died with a 4-1 vote in opposition.

"That's a prime example of spending a great deal of time but ending up right back where we started," Mayor Mike Termini said.

The star of the meeting was not taxes though, it was, at long last, the promotion of the project that could alleviate Village traffic permenantly. In short, the council, by a 4-1 vote, approved a 220-250 space parking lot to be built in the lower Pacific Cove Parking Lot, where the . See a mock-up of the lot and a proposed structure in the images above.

Here are the details:

• The project will cost $1.07 million (see the money breakdown in the images above)
• It will include efficient vehicle and pedestrian circulation
• Pay stations like those on the Esplanade
• Shuttle stops for the beach shuttle in the summer
• $300k in improvements to the current parking lot included in the above price tag 

The council, with the exception of Norton, approved the plan in principal and allocated an initial $75,000 to go toward preliminary costs. Norton, who said the project "makes no financial sense," was adamantly against the lot in its currently-proposed state.

The parking lot is being thought of as a temporary place holder for a $14 million parking structure that would replace the upper lot. But the decision that would finalize a structure is still at least months, if not year, in the future. 

Capitola resident Nels Westman urged the council to complete the new lot by next summer.

What do you think of the idea of a new parking lot? How about the elimination of a hotel tax increase? Tell us in the comments!