Redlands shelves proposed 140-space downtown parking lot

REDLANDS, Calif. — Redlands is shelving plans for a new 140-space downtown parking lot after spending $104,000 studying and designing the project, the latest turn in the city's yearslong effort to address parking as redevelopment reshapes the downtown core.

Why it matters: The City Council reached a consensus Sept. 21 not to continue pursuing a roughly two-acre property owned by the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority between Seventh and Ninth streets, north of Redlands Boulevard, as downtown prepares to lose parking to the redevelopment of the former Redlands Mall property.

Building the parking lot was estimated to cost $650,000. The city could have leased the property from SBCTA at essentially no cost beyond a $1,500 annual railroad license fee or purchased it for a little more than $1 million.

Without a funding source, city staff said they could not recommend moving forward with the project as Redlands faces broader General Fund budget constraints.

"It's currently unfunded, so we would have to make cuts in other areas to be able to pursue this," City Manager Charles Duggan told the council.

Downtown parking remains a challenge

The proposed lot was one piece of a broader effort that began after the City Council adopted a downtown parking study in January 2024 and directed staff to pursue several recommendations.

Economic Development Coordinator Ross Wittman told the council that downtown parking continues to present two challenges: finding spaces close to popular destinations and finding money to expand the city's parking supply.

"As additional development occurs downtown, the eventual mall project, the City Center and the Grand, construction traffic will increase and parking resources will be stretched even further," Wittman said.

The city currently has about 800 to 900 spaces across nine public parking lots downtown, including roughly 400 in the Stuart Avenue parking structure, Wittman said. That count does not include on-street parking.

The city's broader 2023 downtown parking study counted nearly 5,000 public and private spaces throughout the study area, but found parking demand was concentrated around State Street. The study also found that 54% of surveyed visitors expected to park within one or two blocks of their destination.

Since the study, the city has taken several steps to address parking. Redlands resumed enforcement of timed downtown parking in March 2024, and police issued 611 citations between March 2024 and October 2025, Wittman said.

Earlier this year, the city also agreed to pay about $350,000 annually to preserve approximately 500 parking spaces at the former Redlands Mall property as the site moves toward redevelopment. While the developer has not yet submitted plans to the city, Duggan said he expects the city to lose those spaces once construction begins, potentially sometime next year.

City Hall options range from $4 million to $28.5 million

Wittman said the larger obstacle to increasing the city's parking supply is money.

"While parking proximity poses a challenge, perhaps the larger issue is the lack of a dedicated funding source specifically for increasing the supply of downtown parking," he said.

The city has also completed two feasibility studies examining whether the existing City Hall property could eventually provide more downtown parking.

One option would demolish the two eastern buildings at the City Hall complex and construct a surface parking lot while preserving the existing council chambers building and underground parking. Wittman said the project is estimated at $4 million and would provide approximately 280 spaces.

A more ambitious option would demolish the entire City Hall complex and replace it with a multilevel parking structure containing about 500 spaces and 10,000 square feet of retail space along Citrus Avenue. That project is estimated at $28.5 million.

Staff calculated the cost at approximately $48,200 per space for the surface-lot option and $51,390 per space for the parking structure.

Neither project currently has an identified funding source.

Council questions location of proposed lot

The Seventh-to-Ninth Street proposal was considerably less expensive, but council members questioned whether its location would actually solve downtown's parking problem.

Council member Paul Barich pointed to the Centennial Plaza underground parking lot, which he said remains underused despite being closer to State Street.

"People are not going to park there and walk across the street," Barich said of the proposed lot. "If we develop it, they aren't going to use it."

Council member Denise Davis also questioned whether people would be willing to park farther from downtown destinations.

The council ultimately agreed not to continue pursuing the SBCTA property.

The decision leaves the city without an immediate project to add public parking as redevelopment moves forward downtown. The larger question remains of whether the city should spend millions adding spaces or focus on getting drivers to use more of the parking that already exists.