If people are willing to walk a little bit, there still are plenty of empty parking spots along Coast Highway 101 in Encinitas, despite the creation of outdoor dining areas on the roadway, a city-hired consulting company has found. The outdoor dining areas, which were established initially on a temporary basis on public parking spots during the COVID-19 pandemic, do impact downtown’s supply of close-by parking — places less than an eighth of a mile away — during peak summer evening dining hours, the consultants found. However, if people are willing to walk between an eighth and a quarter of a mile, there’s “ample parking” available, even during peak periods. And, the outdoor dining areas appear to have no significant impact on beach access parking, the consulting company CR Associates of San Diego found. The study appears to back up what they suspected, Encinitas City Council members said Wednesday, adding that it also may spur them to consider new parking solutions for downtown. Councilmember Kellie Hinze said she was pleased to see that the outdoor dining areas were “not that big of an impact” on coastal access. That finding will help the city as it now seeks state Coastal Commission permission to make these areas permanent, she said. Mayor Tony Kranz said he thought the city could do more to ease parking troubles in the downtown. Perhaps the council could consider allowing a valet parking program to use the City Hall lot in the evening hours when it isn’t needed for city business, he said. Also, Kranz said, Encinitas could consider installing electronic signs with real time parking information in downtown to help drivers hunting for spots. Temecula’s Old Town area has installed them, and “it’s something I would like to know more about,” he said. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Encinitas turned 55 public parking spots into outdoor dining areas space for 19 restaurants — 47 repurposed parking spots were in the downtown and eight in Leucadia. While the move was welcomed by restaurant owners who were facing COVID-era restrictions, some nearby merchants haven’t been pleased by the dining areas’ long-term presence, saying their businesses are suffering from a lack of available parking spots. At Wednesday’s meeting, Encinitas barber Raul Villamar stressed that the time has come for the dining areas to go. He said his clients often complain about downtown’s lack of parking and some people no longer visit his shop because of this. Councilmember Bruce Ehlers said the city should not use the results of the new study to justify cutting parking requirements for any new developments in downtown, saying people continue to depend upon cars to get around even though public transit advocates wish this wasn’t the case. “As we keep going forward, we’re going to see more and more cars trying to compete for downtown parking,” he said. CR Associates conducted its parking study during July 2022, choosing the July 4th holiday weekend for its Sunday parking assessment, “so it truly reflects a worst-case scenario,” city senior mobility planner Evan Jedynak told the City Council. For its week-day assessment, it picked a Thursday a few days after the July 4th weekend. The consultants reviewed parking conditions throughout the day, breaking the assessments into two-hour intervals. The study area included Coast Highway 101, as well as Vulcan and San Elijo Avenues, in Leucadia, Old Encinitas and Cardiff. Among other things, the consultants found that: Parking spots are more often occupied, and for longer periods, on weekends, than on week days; Parking occupancy rates in the downtown and near both Moonlight and Beacon’s Beach were above 85 percent at times; The two-hour parking limit in the downtown along Coast Highway 101 did encourage more parking space turnover when compared to areas without the two-hour limit. To view the consultant company’s report, visit: https://encinitas.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=7&event_id=4509&meta_id=175328