Dozens of beach towns have effectively managed parking inventory and captured revenue with a seasonal paid parking program, businessman Adam Israel told the City Council in February.

“I think it would be a great fit, a great solution for downtown,” he said. “The long-term goal would be to build a second- or third-level parking structure, and use those funds to help pay for that parking structure.”

The system works with an app, Passport Parking, now used in a 40-space parking lot on Avenue A next to the Elks Lodge.

Seaside Park ‘n’ Pay LLC would manage the 225-space parking lot adjacent to the Seaside Civic and Convention Center. The paid parking season could run from March through October. Proposed rates are $1 per hour Monday through Thursday and $2 per hour on weekends.

Enforcement, conducted by Seaside Park ‘n’ Pay, would be 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

“I thought this might be something that might help the town,” Israel said. “We wouldn’t even have had this conversation 15 years ago, because the technology really didn’t exist and we’d be looking at putting in meters, and that wouldn’t be very cost effective.”

Benefits, Israel said, include an easy payment method, an ability to refill the meter remotely and alerts when a session is about to end. Users would download the app, create an account, park anywhere there is a Park ‘n’ Pay sign and pay for parking sessions by phone.

Management would receive a fee of 20%. Seaside Park ‘n’ Pay would donate up to 5% of that income back to the community for improvements. Israel said he estimated annual gross revenue of $853,000 and net revenue to Seaside of more than $600,000.

Seaside Park ‘n’ Pay would do staffing, enforcement, signage, user interaction and other management tasks, he said.

Israel would test the concept in a 26-week pilot program from May to October.

The idea of paid parking in Seaside is not new.

“According to my research, the city center parking lot was an idea proposed and pursued by the merchants in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s because they needed more parking to provide customer convenience hoping to result in increased business in the downtown core,” City Councilor Tita Montero said. “Since that time, merchants have repeatedly indicated the need for increased parking in the downtown core.”

In 2002, the City Council opted to use a shuttle service through the Sunset Empire Transportation District rather than institute paid parking downtown.

When the convention center discussed its $15 million expansion plan in 2015, a parking structure was among the items proposed, at an additional cost of $6 million. The lot would have cost the city $200,000 for 30 years. The expansion, completed in 2019, did not include the parking structure component.

Before Israel’s presentation, Montero sought a City Council discussion on whether such an initiative should be considered.

“If the decision were to turn the lot into paid parking, the city would then consider whether to self-manage or put out an RFP (request for proposal) for management,” Montero said. “It is inappropriate for the council to now listen to a sales pitch business proposal that infers that such a decision has been made or that such action is being considered.”

She asked that the item be removed from the agenda until the council followed “appropriate and due process that determines whether such a proposal is in order.”

While Montero’s suggestion to table the presentation was unsuccessful, city councilors reserved comment on the paid parking plan.

“At this point we have your presentation and proposal,” Mayor Jay Barber told Israel. “We’ll make sure we bring that to our goals group when we meet.”