On a Tuesday at 11 a.m., where can you actually park at the corner of Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Golden Gate Way? Most of the city-owned lot there hasn't been open to you. Its weekday signs read "Private Leased Parking – Violators Will Be Cited," and a second sign says "Public Parking – Evenings and Weekends."
That lot is the Gazebo lot at 3429 Mt. Diablo Boulevard, and it's one of the two city lots that Lamorinda Weekly reported this month are being added to Lafayette's meter zones. "New meters" sounds like a new charge on your errands. The city documents describe something narrower. Every new charge in the two lots falls on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., and the Gazebo lot's best weekday spaces will open to anyone willing to pay.
Who the Gazebo lot has been holding spaces for
The Gazebo lot has 37 spaces and no meters. On weekdays, 24 of those spaces are leased to three businesses. The other 13 aren't leased, but the whole lot is still signed as private during weekday daytime hours. An August 10 staff report calls it "one of the most centrally located public parking facilities in downtown Lafayette." The same report notes that the arrangement "reserves a significant number of centrally located spaces for a small number of users during peak demand periods."
This change has been a long time coming. In 2014, the City Council asked its Parking Ordinance Committee to develop a program to end private leases on public lots, and the Gazebo lot was named specifically. In 2016, the Council approved ending those leases unless the parking was required as a condition of project approval.
East of Carol Lane on Mt. Diablo Boulevard, the other lot has had the opposite problem. The 16-space city lot at 3299 Mt. Diablo Boulevard, next to Ace Hardware, has had three-hour meters. The 2024 count done for the downtown parking study found it 0% occupied at the weekday midday peak. The staff report put the two lots side by side. One central, fully used lot was absorbing employee demand while another city lot sat "largely empty."
On August 10, the Council voted 5-0 to adopt Resolution 2026-36. It gives the Gazebo leases one final extension through December 31, 2026, then ends them.
The rate is built for a long stay
On September 28, the Council adopted Ordinance 704, which sets the prices. Five locations get a graduated rate that gets cheaper per hour the longer you stay. Hours are set separately by Resolution 2026-51.
| Location | When you pay | When it's free |
|---|---|---|
| Gazebo lot, 3429 Mt. Diablo Blvd. | Mon–Fri, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. | Evenings and weekends |
| Ace lot, 3299 Mt. Diablo Blvd. | Mon–Fri, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. | Evenings and weekends |
| Oak Hill Road, now both sides | Mon–Sat, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. | Evenings and Sundays |
| Dolores Drive | Mon–Sat, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. | Evenings and Sundays |
| Happy Valley Road, longer-stay spaces | Mon–Sat, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. | Evenings and Sundays |
At all five locations, you pay $2 for up to one hour, $4 for up to two, $4.50 for up to three, and $5 for four hours or more, with a $5 daily maximum. Every other meter in the city stays at $2 an hour. For a one-hour errand, these spaces cost the same as any other downtown meter. The gap opens up later in the day. Four hours on a standard meter costs $8. In one of these spaces it's $5, and staff told the Council the meters will allow up to eight hours.
Happy Valley Road's existing unmetered two-hour spaces don't change. First Street between Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Deer Hill Road goes the other way. Caltrans required the city to remove on-street parking on that block, so Ordinance 704 takes it out of the meter zones.
Nobody will check whether you work downtown. At the August meeting, Vice Mayor McCormick confirmed that the city won't keep a roster of employees. He said the expectation is that whoever parks at 8 or 9 a.m. is probably staying all day, and that the public can park there in the afternoon if a space is open. The ordinance also states that the spaces stay public and won't be reserved for employees or for any single business or property.
A downtown with empty spaces, just not where people want to park
The case for steering employees toward these spaces comes from the city's Downtown Parking Management Study, finalized in April 2026. The study counted 3,388 spaces in its study area and found peak occupancy of 52% on weekdays and 55% on weekends, which left more than 1,100 spaces empty at the busiest hour.
Those averages hide where the pressure is:
- Downtown Core, weekends: 67% full, 1,252 of 1,855 spaces
- Downtown Core, weekdays: 56% full, 1,031 of 1,855 spaces
- Rest of downtown, weekends: 38% full
- Surrounding neighborhoods, weekends: 45% full
Lamorinda Weekly's coverage of the study named the blocks around Plaza Center and Diablo Foods as places with especially heavy demand, while other blocks saw little use. The study also explains why the short-term spaces in those hot spots fill up. Long-stay options for employees were limited and poorly communicated. Some employees parked in short-term customer spaces. Others parked farther away and walked through areas the study described as unsafe or poorly lit.
So the logic is fairly direct. If a shop employee who now takes a two-hour space near Plaza Center can park all day in the Ace lot for $5, that two-hour space is free for someone stopping in for groceries. The August staff report says it plainly: "downtown parking challenges are often less a function of parking supply and more a function of how parking resources are managed."
There's a third option for long stays. The BART South Lot is now open to anyone, employees included. BART manages it, and you pay through BART's app. The city's transportation manager, Patrick Golier, told the Council he had connected BART with the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, which is promoting the lot to businesses in that part of downtown.
When each piece actually changes
The ordinance has passed, but nothing changes the day it takes effect.
- Now through December 31, 2026: The Gazebo lot keeps its weekday leased arrangement under the final extension.
- After the ordinance takes effect: For the Ace lot and the three streets, staff will coordinate updates to meters, payment systems, and signs before the new rates begin. The staff report doesn't give a date for that work.
- January 2027 at the earliest: The Gazebo lot becomes all-day paid public parking with new signs. The staff report says these changes "would not occur before January 2027."
- After launch: Staff will track how full the spaces are and how easy it is to find one. The study suggests holding off on tools like dynamic pricing until these first steps have been tried and evaluated.
How the fall calendar lines up with the meters
Downtown's busiest fall events show where the free hours fall. Trick or Treat Street takes over Mt. Diablo Boulevard from Lafayette Plaza to Dewing Avenue, plus Lafayette Circle and La Fiesta Square, on Friday, October 30, from 4 to 6 p.m. Lamorinda Weekly reports that more than 50 merchants took part last year. That's a weekday afternoon, inside metered hours, and while the Gazebo lot's lease extension is still running. The Chamber's free It's a Wonderful Life in Lafayette Holiday Celebration, with Santa, Lafayette Express train rides, and the tree lighting, falls on the same kind of slot: Friday, December 4, 4 to 6 p.m.
Saturday is a mixed day. Once the new rules are running, the Ace and Gazebo lots are free all weekend, but Oak Hill Road, Dolores Drive, and the Happy Valley Road longer-stay spaces still charge until 6 p.m. The Youth Commission's Spooky Walk runs at the Community Center on Saturday and Sunday, October 24 and 25. Advance registration is required.
Downtown streets will also be torn up through the end of the month. The city's weekly update says overnight repaving of streets affected by EBMUD's pipeline work starts October 25 and should take about four nights. EBMUD's Wilkinson Cluster Pipeline Replacement covers Mt. Diablo Boulevard between Lafayette Circle and Moraga Road, Moraga Road between Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Brook Street, and Wilkinson Lane.
Once the Gazebo lot's leases end and its meters go live, anyone can park there on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. for $2 for the first hour or $5 for the whole day, and it stays free after 6 p.m. and on weekends.
Parking rules near a property are one of the small things that shape what daily life there is like. If you're thinking about what your downtown-adjacent home is worth as Lafayette changes, Holman Stone Real Estate can walk you through it. Request a free home valuation, and we'll put your property in context with what's happening on your street.
