In Downtown San Juan Capistrano, the Curb Still Outlasts the Lots
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
If you park on Camino Capistrano for dinner, you can stay five hours. If you pull into the Los Rios Lot at 31221 Los Rios Street, you pay $2 an hour and have to leave after four. So the free street spaces in the busiest part of town allow longer stays than the lots built to take pressure off them. The city's parking consultant identified this as a core problem, and the City Council voted on Sept. 1 to fix it.
The fix hasn't reached the signs yet. As of this week, downtown parking runs on the same rules it did last summer. The changes are coming in steps, and the order of those steps tells you more about the next year downtown than the vote itself.
The city hired Dixon Resources Unlimited in January 2025 under a $110,000 contract to study downtown parking. The year before, the city had set aside $125,000 from its Parking Maintenance Fund to start the effort.
The Capistrano Dispatch reported Dixon's findings. On-street parking in the commercial core regularly runs above 85% occupancy, which is the industry's target ceiling. Private parking facilities nearby sit underused. Enforcement is split between two Orange County Sheriff's Department Community Service Officers and part-time staff, so large stretches go unmonitored. And on-street spaces allow five hours, longer than the four-hour limit in the off-street lots.
Those facts explain each other. When the curb is free, lasts longer, and is rarely checked, all-day parkers have every reason to take it. Every space they hold is one less for a quick stop at a shop or restaurant. Dixon recommended moving long-term employee parking away from storefronts and freeing the curb for short retail and dining visits.
The council voted 4–1 to approve policy direction on five items.
Dixon named the two-hour corridors as Camino Capistrano, El Camino Real, Old Mission Road, and Yorba Street. It also proposed 15- to 30-minute "bookend" loading zones at block ends and a "No Re-Parking" rule, so a driver couldn't simply move the car to the next block when time ran out.
The council turned down one recommendation. Dixon had proposed extending $2-an-hour paid parking to the Ramos Street Lot to match the Los Rios Lot next door, and projected more than $500,000 a year in net revenue. As the Dispatch reported, Councilmember Howard Hart said:
"Frankly, we as a city are not a money-making entity. Hopefully, we can break even, but our job is to serve the people, not to make a profit."
So Ramos Street stays free. The implementation plan describes it as free public parking with a four-hour limit, with employee permits accepted on weekdays. Once the curb drops to two hours, Ramos will be the free four-hour option close to the Historic Town Center.
Councilmember Sergio Farias voted no. The Dispatch reported his concern that adding officers and tracking technology without adding parking spaces would lead to tickets for residents and frustrated visitors. Mayor John Campbell argued that the city needs the data before it can decide whether a parking structure is needed at all. "I'm just tired of the problem," he said, as the Dispatch reported.
The Sept. 1 vote gave staff direction. It did not create an ordinance. Staff still have to draft the specific ordinances, job descriptions, and vendor contracts and bring each one back to the council for a formal vote before it takes effect. The Dispatch reported that the changes would roll out gradually over the following months.
Neither of the next two regular council agendas included a parking item. The Sept. 15 agenda and the Oct. 6 agenda dealt with other business. The implementation plan puts the code and policy changes, including the two-hour limits, in a "Months 1–6" phase, but it doesn't give a calendar start date.
The order of the steps matters too. Julie Dixon told the council that staffing has to come before any change to policy or time limits. The new officers would start as "Parking Ambassadors" focused on public education during the early rollout, and Dixon recommended in-house hires over security contractors. That means the first visible change downtown will probably be new staff on the sidewalk, before any new limit appears on a sign.
The cameras have their own schedule. The plan calls for two roof-mounted License Plate Recognition units fitted to existing city vehicles. They would time-stamp cars as they pass each block and check them against active permits or paid sessions. Voice of OC reported on Sept. 22 that staff were expected to issue a request for proposals to providers for the council to review before anything goes into effect. The same report noted that the city has run 20 Flock cameras at parks, facilities, and traffic signals since 2023, and that council members raised privacy questions during the discussion.
Until new ordinances pass, the paid lots run under the meter schedule in the San Juan Capistrano municipal code. The signs posted at each lot are the final word. Here is what the code lists:
| Location | Address | Rate | Time limit | Overnight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franciscan Plaza Parking Structure | 26732 Verdugo Street | Spaces 109–355: $2/hour; spaces 35–108: $2 all day if parked before 10 a.m., $2/hour after | Spaces 35–355 listed as all-day public parking | Spaces 1–34 overnight only, $20/day, 72-hour limit; no parking 2–5 a.m. in other spaces |
| Multi-Modal Parking Lot | 26731 Verdugo Street | $2/hour | 4 hours | No parking 2–5 a.m. |
| Mission Promenade/Swallows Inn | 31775 El Camino Real | $2/hour | 4 hours | No parking 2–5 a.m. |
| Love-Mitchell | 31811 El Camino Real | $2/hour | 4 hours | No parking 2–5 a.m. |
| Los Rios Parking Lot | 31221 Los Rios Street | $2/hour | 4 hours | No parking 2–5 a.m. |
| Paseo Adelanto, on-street | Del Obispo Street to Ramos Street | $2/hour, metered 7 a.m.–10 p.m. | 4 hours | Not listed |
| Ramos Street Lot | Ramos Street | Free | 4 hours | Weekday employee permits accepted |
Today the free curb gives you an hour more than every four-hour lot on the list. Once the two-hour limit takes effect, a long lunch on Camino Capistrano will run longer than the curb allows. At that point Ramos Street and the $2 lots become the default for any stay over two hours, and the Franciscan Plaza Parking Structure is the one place the code lists as all-day public parking.
The other big change to downtown parking came out of the Planning Commission. On Oct. 14, commissioners approved the French Hotel, a 70-room project at 31861–31871 Camino Capistrano, by a 4–0 vote with one recusal, according to Citizen Portal's coverage of the hearing. The plan removes later non-historic additions and restores the Domingo Yorba and Casa Manuel Garcia adobes with seismic retrofits. It also adds a public courtyard and dining spaces.
According to the staff report, the hotel will have 70 on-site spaces. Sixty-six are in a valet-operated mechanical lift and four are surface spaces, and hotel staff park all the cars. The report also lists two loading areas, one on the property and one on Camino Capistrano. The street loading zone could take out up to six public curb spaces. Citizen Portal reported that commissioners asked how reliable the car lift would be and whether cars could back up onto Camino Capistrano. The applicant pointed to backup power as one of its answers.
Citizen Portal also reported that, before approving, commissioners amended the valet condition by removing the word "registered." That means restaurant and event guests can use the valet too, not only hotel guests. The applicant agreed and will submit a valet plan before the hotel opens. A dinner reservation in the restored adobes will come with its own parking, which few downtown restaurants can offer.
The revised conditions of approval set the approval to take effect Oct. 29, 2026, after a 15-day appeal period, as long as no appeal was filed. It then stays valid for 12 months and expires Oct. 29, 2027, unless a time extension request is submitted or a building permit for the project is issued before then. The approval sets the hotel's design and parking terms, and building permits come next.
Each piece of the parking plan still has to pass its own council vote: the officer positions, the code amendments that set the two-hour limit, the vendor contracts for cameras and permits, and the employee permit fee increase from $8 to $15. The city posts agendas and staff reports on its Granicus portal ahead of each regular meeting. Until those items pass, the curb along Camino Capistrano, El Camino Real, Old Mission Road, and Yorba Street still allows five hours, and most of the city lots still allow four.
If you own near the Historic Town Center, a walkable downtown is part of your home's value, and the hotel and the parking changes will both affect that downtown. GreenTree Properties tracks these changes block by block and can show you where your address fits in. Request Your Home Valuation, and we'll include that downtown context with the numbers.
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