Downtown Parking Management Plan
Summary and Current Status
City Council has directed a comprehensive, long-term parking strategy/management plan for Downtown Sonoma. To accomplish this, the City contracted with W-Trans, a local traffic engineering firm, to create a Downtown Parking Management Plan (Plan) that outlines a strategy to address parking challenges in Downtown Sonoma.
At thier meeting on August 3, 2022, City Council heard a presentation from staff and W-Trans on a Plan and directed staff to set up the next steps and a timeline for the implementation of this plan. Watch a recording of the presentation on our CivicWeb portal (Item 3.3).
The City’s planning department released a Draft Downtown Parking Management Plan for a 30-day public review that closed at 5:00 pm on November 16th. The Plan was considered by the City's Planning Commission at their meeting on November 17, 2022, (watch a recording) and continued the item to their December 15th meeting.
Next Steps
The City's Planning Commission discussed the Public Draft Parking Management Plan at their November 17th meeting and continued the item to their December 15th meeting. The item is being continued to allow City staff to research and incorporate recommendations made by the commission. Watch a recording of the November 17th meeting.
Staff will then take the plan with any revisions and/or recommendations from the Planning Commission to the City Council for consideration in early 2023, (date to be determined.)
Find more information about the Draft Plan, FAQs, updates, documents below. Please Please note that large documents might not be able to be previewed, but can be viewed by clicking the "download" link.
Questions? Contact the Planning Department: Call (707) 938-3681 or Email
Draft Downtown Parking Management Plan
The Draft Downtown Parking Management Plan (Plan) summarizes the most recent parking inventory, supply, and demand study, including counts of the public on- and off-street parking supply. The Plan identifies specific parking strategies, which represent a toolbox of measures available to the City. To prioritize their application, they are broken into two phases: Phase 1 measures are anticipated to be implemented in FY 2023 - 2024. Phase 2 measures represent a suite of options for consideration at a later date on an as-needed basis.
PHASE 1 - The strategies in the first phase are recommended because of their relative ease of implementation. These strategies require comparatively little management and may by themselves result in an acceptable parking system for the City. However, the first phase strategies are somewhat limited in their effectiveness to manage parking demand and if the City finds they do not create a satisfactory parking environment, Phase 2 strategies are available. Phase 1 strategies include:
- Parking Enforcement
- Parking Wayfinding
- Passenger Loading Zones
- Casa Grande Lot improvements in coordination with State Parks
- Shared Parking Agreements with private property owners
- On-Street Time Restrictions
- Additional Bicycle Parking locations
- Special Event Bicycle Valet Parking
- Establishment of a Parking Benefit District
PHASE 2 - Phase 2 strategies as described in the Plan, will be considered on an as-needed basis in the future.