Residential Permit Parking Program

As a parking solution in East Palo Alto, the 2020 Mobility Study recommended a permit parking program. As part of the study, a draft program was introduced on a very high level.

The mobility study suggests that implementing a permit parking program would have many benefits including:

• Equitably allocating on-street parking spaces among neighborhood residents.
• Encouraging residents to use available off-street parking spaces (in garages and driveways).
• Encouraging residents to sell/donate excess vehicles.
• Generating revenue to fund parking enforcement.

As recognized in the mobility study, parking problems occur in all East Palo Alto neighborhoods.  Furthermore, staff regularly receives parking complaints from residents. The City Council also receives parking complaints and realizes that the City needs to administer policy solutions to improve parking in neighborhoods.  The City Council supports a permit parking program as one potential way to improve parking and directed staff to prioritize the launch of such a program through its Strategic Priority process.

Staff presented an initial draft residential permit parking ordinance to the Public Works and Transportation Commission (PWTC) at the December 20^th, 2023 meeting. At the meeting, staff received comments from the PWTC and members of the public. Comments were incorporated into the updated draft ordinance. On April 17^th, 2024, the City’s transportation consultant, Hexagon Transportation Consultants, Inc. (Hexagon) presented the updated residential permit parking program ordinance to the PWTC. Hexagon responded to questions and comments made by the public and the PWTC. Staff and Hexagon returned to the PWTC and presented a refined draft permit parking ordinance at the May 15^th 2024 meeting.

The Permit Parking program would establish a procedure to implement a permit parking area (PPA) anywhere in the City. The draft residential permit parking program details the process of designating and establishing a PPA, the issuance of permits and guest permits, enforcement, and the removal of a PPA. The City is working on establishing a permit parking procedure. A public information/community meeting was held on 11/12/2024 at the City Council Special Session. At the meeting additional information and next steps on the adoption process were discussed. 

Staff introduced the ordinance in a first reading at the March 18, 2025, city council meeting. The City Council made various changes to the proposed ordinance at the March meeting, including updating program eligibility based on vehicle type, registration and unsettled parking citations, removing the petition requirement for establishing an RPPA, and introducing automatic implementation for areas with 75% parking occupancy.  

This modified ordinance was considered for adoption in second reading on July 8, 2025. Following community input and council deliberation, the ordinance was not adopted. Feedback from the community highlighted concerns about costs of permits, the impact those costs would have on low-income community members, and lack of community input on the modified ordinance.  

The City Council directed staff to further revise the ordinance and return for reintroduction at a later date. The City Council revisions included reintroducing neighborhood-led petitions and re-evaluating the automatic implementation provision. The city council also directed staff to make revisions based on the community's feedback and directed staff to increase enforcement of existing parking codes. At the February 24th, 2026, City Council meeting, staff reintroduced the ordinance with the modifications and the City Council waived the first reading. 

On March 17th, 2026 the City Council waived the second reading and adopted an ordinance adding a new Chapter 10.40 (Residential Permit Parking Program) to the East Palo Alto Municipal Code.

Adopted Ordinance

The final ordinance can be found here.

The program guidelines can be found here.

Next Steps

Following adoption of the Ordinance, staff will proceed to the next phase of program development, which will focus on defining the details of the RPP program. This work will include recommendations on permit costs and citation fees, enforcement phases, maximum permits per household, and recommended Residential Permit Parking Areas (RPPAs). Robust community engagement will be a central component of this process. Ordinance petitions will only be accepted once the program details are finalized.

Once the program schedule is available, it will be posted on this project page.

Questions? Questions can be sent to Senior Engineer, Batool Zaro, at bzaro@cityofepa.org.