{"id":211299,"date":"2026-03-09T06:49:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T06:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/211299\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T06:49:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T06:49:06","slug":"paid-parking-arrives-in-old-towne-orange-for-better-and-for-worse-the-panther-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/211299\/","title":{"rendered":"Paid parking arrives in Old Towne Orange, for better and for worse \u2014 The Panther Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under the new paid parking system<\/a> which started in early February, drivers now pay hourly rates through kiosks or mobile apps in designated zones around the Orange Circle.<\/p>\n

Some business owners eagerly awaited the change.<\/p>\n

Mike Hernandez, owner of Smoked BBQ<\/a> and Provisions<\/a>, said the city\u2019s growth \u2014 especially the increase in restaurants \u2014 began to outgrow the area\u2019s parking infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jack Carlisle, owner of The Potting Shed<\/a>, agreed, saying parking congestion has been building for years as the Old Towne Orange Historic District<\/a> continues to grow.<\/p>\n

Under the new system, city leaders hope employees are encouraged to park in designated areas farther from the Circle, leaving the closest spaces available for customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a fantastic thing,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cOnce people realize how easy it is to come here for lunch and find a parking spot, they\u2019re going to start coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

To maintain foot traffic, Orange City Councilmember Arianna Barrios<\/a> recommends businesses work out assigned parking for their workers. Unlike customers who make short visits, workers need parking for several hours, making the hourly rates unfeasible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Echo Ellis, who works at the Orange County Antique Mall,<\/a> said that the parking transition has been difficult for many workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were never really told where we were supposed to park,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t find out until days before it was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis said some employees eventually created their own map of available free parking areas after the change took effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my coworkers made a map because we were having so much trouble finding places to park,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cThere\u2019s maybe five or six places total in all of Old Towne Orange where employees are allowed to park for free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with those locations identified, Ellis said the distance can create challenges for vendors who sell antiques in the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of them are older and really aren\u2019t physically capable of hauling stuff multiple blocks back and forth,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cFor a lot of people, that\u2019s how they make their money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safety is another concern for employees finishing late shifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always concerned for people who work here really late, like in the bars and stuff, having to walk alone multiple blocks to their cars if it\u2019s dark,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n

Hernandez agreed, saying the city may still need to address that issue as the parking system evolves.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of my employees are girls who work late at night,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThey\u2019re walking two blocks away to the parking structure at midnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions also circulate about how the revenue from paid parking is benefiting city services.<\/p>\n

As Chapman continues to buy property and land, Barrios said the city is facing increasing financial pressure as those properties are removed from the city\u2019s tax rolls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barrios says the amount of university-owned property has steadily increased over the past decade and should be part of a larger conversation. One proposal being discussed between the city and Chapman is a \u201cPayment in Lieu of Taxes\u201d (PILOT) program<\/a>, a partnership model used by many cities and universities<\/a>. With a voluntary payment made, they help fund public services that the university benefits from, such as police, fire and infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Chapman having just announced that they\u2019ve crossed the threshold of a $1 billion endowment<\/a>, we really look to the university to be a better partner and help pay for some of the services (provided),\u201d Barrios said.<\/p>\n

The PILOT program is expected to be discussed at a future city council meeting, though Barrios said parking revenue has already helped close some budget gaps and fund services like street cleaning in the Circle.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, for employees like Ellis, the work starts before clocking in, making parking a new part of the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Under the new paid parking system which started in early February, drivers now pay hourly rates through kiosks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-211299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}