Millbrae's Parking Meter Plan Is Aimed at a Few Full Blocks of Broadway

The Millbrae Certified Farmers Market sets up every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the 200 to 300 block of Broadway, between La Cruz and Victoria. The City-owned parking lot near the market has a name in City Hall documents. Staff call it the "Farmers' Market lot," and it is one of three downtown sites where a parking garage was sketched this fall. The same downtown blocks are also first in line for parking meters, planned for early 2027.

Most of the talk about Millbrae's Downtown Parking Management Program has centered on two fears: that the whole downtown is about to be metered, and that a six-story garage is coming to Magnolia. The City's own figures point to something smaller. Downtown is not out of parking overall. Some of its busiest commercial blocks are, and every piece of the plan is built around those blocks.

The 69% figure and the blocks that run full

The City's Myth vs. Fact update, posted October 22, 2026, gives the baseline. In 2023, overall downtown parking occupancy peaked at 69%. Some commercial blocks were nearly 100% full, and about one in five cars stayed longer than two hours.

At 69% occupancy, nearly a third of downtown spaces were open even at the busiest time. The trouble is where the cars sit and how long they stay. Long stays on a few storefront blocks mean drivers circle Broadway while spaces sit open a short walk away. The City's program FAQ describes the goal the same way: turnover on the busiest streets, with longer-term parking moved into surface lots. The FAQ also expects demand to rise, with more than 2,000 residential units planned citywide over the next five years under state requirements.

Enforcement is changing too. Today, officers walk the blocks and chalk tires. The proposal replaces chalk with license-plate-reading cameras mounted on enforcement vehicles, which the City says can read about 500 plates an hour and can tell when a car has only moved a few spaces down the same block. In the City's summary, most community feedback asked for more enforcement.

What the meters cover, and what is still open

The scope is narrow. Paid parking would apply only to City-owned or City-controlled spaces, meaning on-street parking plus four City lots, and only in front of commercial or mixed-use storefronts. Spaces in front of homes are excluded, and private lots are not part of the program. The current plan includes about 825 paid spaces and about 45 green-curb short-term spaces that stay free for quick stops like coffee, dry cleaning or a takeout pickup. An earlier San Mateo Daily Journal report put the count at 750 paid spaces, so the number has moved as the plan has developed.

The first phase covers Broadway and the streets right next to it. Meters along El Camino Real come later and require coordination with Caltrans and the state, according to Daily Journal coverage of the consultants' proposal.

Here is where things stand heading into November:

The rate column is still empty. Kimley-Horn consultant Brian Shaw told the council that a base rate of $1.25 an hour had been considered earlier, and that the City still needs a cost model to find what the program would take to break even, the Daily Journal reported. Reuben Holober, then mayor, put the target this way in the same article: "We want to be breaking even. But people don't want to be in a position where they feel like they're being ripped off, either."

Payment equipment is the only part residents have tried in person so far. On October 22, two vendors showed their meters and apps at City Hall, one in the Chetcuti Room and one in the Library. The City's ordinance allows meters, pay stations and mobile apps, and the consultant recommended pay stations that take coins and cards, with an app as an extra option.

What the City says it is learning from other programs

The City's update says Millbrae is drawing on other cities' experience, including San Bruno's. It names four features of San Bruno's program, and each one lines up with an open item in Millbrae's plan:

• Kiosk failures, which tie to Millbrae's pending equipment choice
• A one-hour minimum charge, which ties to rates and time limits
• Enforcement from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, which ties to paid days and hours
• Paid parking on low-demand El Camino Real blocks, which ties to which blocks get meters and when

Because Millbrae has not set rates, hours, zones or equipment, the City says it can address each of these before the program starts. The settings also stay adjustable afterward. According to the City's update, rates, hours, time limits and zones are set by council resolution, can be changed at a public meeting, and staff can make limited rate adjustments on their own. If the busiest blocks still fill up, or if a metered block sits empty, those settings can come back to the council.

Broadway's parklets come with a meter clause

Restaurants with outdoor dining in Broadway parking spaces already have a rule tied to meters. Millbrae's parklet guidelines, dated November 2023, require an encroachment permit and say a parklet in a metered space must cover the lost meter revenue if the City installs meters there. Parklet permits renew every year. Under the City fee schedule effective July 1, 2026, a parklet costs a $270.81 application fee plus $1,319.09 per parking space each year for use of the space.

Holober told the council that once spaces become paid, the City will likely need to revisit what parklets cost, according to the Daily Journal. On a metered block, a parklet takes up a space that could be bringing in revenue for the parking fund, so the street dining scene on Broadway is part of the same set of decisions.

The free streets next door carry the biggest open question

Turnover on Broadway only helps if long-stay cars do not simply move a block over. The City's update says the plan proposes expanding residential permits to blocks within a quarter mile of paid parking, with regular monitoring of permit zones. Permit boundaries, fees and monitoring triggers are still undecided.

The FAQ lists the streets where residents have raised spillover concerns: Palm, Hemlock, Hermosa, Magnolia, Silva, Willow and Poplar avenues. The list records concerns and is not a final zone map. The current residential permit program will continue, and the City is exploring new preferential-parking zones on blocks where a majority of residents in the proposed zone want to be included. Shaw told the council, as the Daily Journal reported, that moving the existing permit program onto plate readers would make residential enforcement "much easier, faster and more efficient."

Councilmember Anders Fung described the goal for these blocks as giving "maximum advantage to those who already live on the block," the Daily Journal reported. Former Mayor Ann Schneider, who lives on Palm Avenue, asked consultants to talk directly with residents on streets that could be affected.

The garage is a separate, unfunded question

On September 8, 2026, staff presented eight preliminary concepts for three City-owned sites: the Farmers' Market lot, the Magnolia lot and the El Camino Real/US Bank lot. No site has been selected, and nothing has been designed, environmentally reviewed, funded or authorized. According to the FAQ, no garage funding has been identified, and the City does not expect excess meter revenue to pay for much of one. Any garage would need further council votes on site selection, design, environmental review and financing, plus height variances for some concepts.

The order matters. The 2025 plan proposed paid parking to manage current demand and a garage only as a long-term option if demand outgrows supply. The City's stated approach is to see what turnover does first and decide on new supply after. With 69% peak occupancy as the starting point, that is a reasonable order of operations.

The dates ahead

1. November 10: City staff planned to recommend a parking vendor to the council at this meeting, the Daily Journal reported.
2. November 24: The City FAQ targets this council meeting for the contract award. Equipment purchase and installation follow.
3. First quarter of 2027: The City's target for starting paid parking downtown.

Both November dates are targets, so check the City's agenda center for the posted agenda before you go. Rates, hours, zones and equipment will all be decided at public council meetings where residents can comment. The City FAQ lists residential and employee permit boundaries and fees as still undecided, so this post is general information and not legal or financial advice. Confirm how any final rule applies to your block or business with the City.

Parking rules affect how a downtown works day to day, and they can also affect a home on a block near the paid zone. If you want to know what Millbrae's permit boundaries might mean for a property you own or are considering, Nick Delis is glad to go over it with you. Schedule a private Peninsula market consultation.