Residents and visitors will soon have to pay to park in downtown Paso Robles.
Beginning on August 14th, drivers will have to pay to park between 10th and 14th Street and Spring to Pine Street.
The first two hours will be free, then $1 for each additional hour Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
"I get to work at nine-ish and pretty much every spot is taken already," said downtown business employee Karrin Coria. "People come for breakfast... people come for lunch... for dinner... and with concerts in the park... it definitely is busy down here."
According to Paso Robles Police Commander Caleb Davis the county is aware that Paso Robles is growing and that this new program aims to address the parking problem those in Paso Robles are confronting.
"We are trying to educate people on really how easy the program is... if you do use a smartphone," said Davis. "It is a really simple way to use a parking app and it is incredibly easy to use... so I think once people get past the initial that they have to do this and learn how easy it is... we really feel that it will go off nice."
However, not everyone is keen about the upcoming change.
"Everybody knows about the parking around here... there is not enough parking," said Liz Arebalo, who frequents the downtown area. "Put on top of it having to pay for parking... it is going to cause a lot of misgivings about even coming up."
This past December, the city launched a downtown business parking permit program that reserves parking spaces for those who hold permits in five public parking lots.
According to the city, however, many employees are still parking on the street. The parking permit program will continue and permits are $5.
The city also said the revenue that is generated from this initiative will be put back into a parking fund, the very fund that was used to install the infrastructure for this program.
