Dude, where’s my car? Parking in Springs at tipping point

The commercial corridor bisecting the Springs is in the midst of a minor renaissance. After decades of incremental progress reversing its down-at-the-heels vibe, the Springs has suddenly become hip. But the newfound energy infusing the area has a downside for the people who live there: a surfeit of visitors arriving by car, and far too few places in which to park them.

They arrive in droves at El Molino Central, the Mexican eatery with a devoted cult following. They swarm the chic new hamburger joint, West Handmade Burgers, pulling into improvised parking spaces wherever they can.

“I feel for the residents near popular eating spots along Highway 12,” one Sonoma resident wrote on the social media site Nextdoor. “The parking is terrible!”

“I’d like to see them have more consideration of their neighbors,” said another.

Garrett Sathre, owner of West Handmade Burgers, which has only a handful of parking spaces fronting his business, said that his customers are directed to park in the unpaved public lot one block south.

But many of his customers seem to be ignoring those instructions, preferring to park on nearby residential streets, instead.

Miguel Hurtado, manager at El Molino, admitted that the eight spaces adjacent to his restaurant and the five spaces in front are not adequate for the number of patrons the restaurant serves. But Hurtado’s sympathies lie primarily with his customers. “People drive two hours to come eat here and can’t get a spot to park. It is a problem,” Hurtado said. “A lot of people park on the street, but we haven’t really had complaints from neighbors.”

“Well, when his customers can’t find a spot they drive up Highland Boulevard,” said Joan Wheeler, 86, who has lived behind El Molino on Highland for five years. “Parking up here is horrible.”

Parking on the Highway 12 corridor, always difficult, was further compromised when Caltrans completed its improvements in 2016. The multi-million dollar project widened the highway, but eliminated 60 to 70 legal parking spaces in the process.

“We’ve always had parking challenges in the Springs,” said 1st District Supervisor Susan Gorin. “It’s a little more difficult now since we moved forward with the widening, but the community wanted the bike lanes and sidewalks.”

Much of the limited parking that exists in the Springs is filled early in the day by cars that don’t move. To address the habit of all-day parking in the 42-space lot behind the Boyes Post Office, a half-time community services officer was hired by the county earlier this year to monitor the lot.

Signs limiting parking to 90 minutes have been posted, and tickets are now being issued to scofflaws.

“We are unincorporated,” Gorin said. “We’re not used to urban issues. Is parking enforcement expensive? It is. This is just one of the challenges when a community grows.”

That parking lot’s newly-patrolled spaces are themselves only temporary relief, as the parcel is slated to morph into a community plaza. As the Springs Specific Plan - and its vision for the Highway 12 corridor in the decades ahead - winds its way through the adoption process, the conversion of the parking lot to a plaza is a near certainty, Gorin said.

Gorin adopts a glass-half-full attitude toward the challenges that accompany a neighborhood’s reinvention, saying she’s “excited” about the new businesses that will be coming to the Springs. But, she adds, it is incumbent upon the county to help alleviate the parking.

“We celebrate the fact that we are having businesses make investments in an area that has needed an economic boost for a long time,” said Gorin. “But there is an obligation on the part of the county to look for ways to build replacement parking, as we have more vehicles and more vehicle miles traveled than ever before.”

The vacant lot next to Parson’s Hardware at 17800 Sonoma Highway will soon be graded and graveled to make space for 10 to 12 cars. “It won’t really satisfy the need, but it is another option,” Gorin said.

Constructing a parking structure is a potential solution, though such structures are expensive to build and maintain, Gorin said. “Do Springs residents want to pay an assessment for a multi-story parking garage? Or do we want to find another way?” Gorin said. “We live in the Springs. We don’t have parking in the Springs. I say let’s celebrate being a community. Let’s walk and ride bikes.”

Georgeann Quinn, of Rancho Vista, is on board with that plan by default. “When I go to the Post Office, I walk because there’s no parking,” she said.

Gorin acknowledged that though community growing pains can be hard, evolution is the natural byproduct of living history. “Neighbors don’t want strange cars parked in front of their houses, but this is going to be life in the Springs for the foreseeable future.”

Contact Kate at kate.williams@sonomanews.com.