City Council voting on downtown parking study

The City Council is set to vote Wednesday evening to accept or deny $50,000 from the Kern Council of Government to pay for the study. If the council agrees to accept the money, the study would review the existing parking policies and infrastructure in the downtown area. It would also identify opportunities that may exist to improve parking arrangements. "We believe that it's important for us to take a comprehensive look at the current status of our parking problem," said Ward 2 Council member Andrae Gonzales. Council member Gonzales said recently the City Council adopted a new goal to grow the downtown area from 5,000 residents to 10,000 residents by 2030. "This study is really important because we need to look at how are we going to meet those parking demands given the housing goals we have for downtown and also all of the needs that people have in terms of promoting their business and serving their customers," he said.