The City Council will continue discussions about how to optimize public parking in Piedmont’s Civic Center at their April 21, 2025 meeting, with the aim of providing the best possible experience for visitors to the Civic Center.

City Council meeting: Civic Center Parking
April 21, 2025, 6pm
Piedmont City Hall, 120 Vista Avenue
Zoom: piedmont-ca-gov.zoom.us/j/82500567382
Agenda | Staff Report

Expected discussion topics at Monday’s meeting include:

• Designated ADA spaces
• Pick up/drop off areas
• Parking for public safety vehicles
• Number, location, and distribution of time-limited (30 minute and 2 hour) spaces

This is a discussion item only and the Council will not be voting on a final parking plan at this meeting.

City conducting traffic flow analysis before making final recommendations

This agenda topic continues a discussion that began on March 17, when City staff shared a “maximum” parking scenario that demonstrated what it would look like to provide the greatest possible number of public parking spaces while complying with applicable laws. Under this scenario, 17 new spaces could be added by converting Bonita Avenue to one-way traffic between Vista and Oakland Avenues. Parallel parking on the Havens Elementary side of the street would be converted to diagonal parking.

The City is currently conducting traffic counts.  No staff recommendation regarding employee restricted parking or the direction of traffic on Bonita between Vista and Oakland Avenues is being made at Monday’s meeting.

This discussion follows several years of disruption to historical parking distribution in the Civic Center area, beginning with the construction of the new STEAM building and theater on the Piedmont High School campus, when “Permit A” restrictions were added to existing parking spaces along Magnolia. An additional 57 spaces were lost in 2023 when construction began on the new community pool. Further spaces were removed or redesignated in summer 2024 to accommodate construction on the Police Department’s new 9-1-1 dispatch center.

A recent community survey on parking in the Civic Center received nearly 500 responses. Roughly half of respondents reported that they found parking in the area either “somewhat” or “very” difficult.