Part 1: Employee Parking Management Program (EPMP)

Let’s talk about parking! Parking has been a hot-button issue in Yountville over the last several years. With Yountville’s growing popularity among tourists, the perceived lack of parking in some areas of town has been a rallying cry for residents who wish to stop a new business from coming into town. To mitigate the impacts of new business, the Town of Yountville implemented the Employee Parking Management Program (EPMP) in 2015. 

This two-part series takes a deep dive into why the program exists, what it is, who is participating, the impact it has on new businesses and residents, what else can be we do around parking, and whether or not it is working. 

What is the Employee Parking Management Program?

Since its inception in 2015, the program requires 50%, and up to 100%, of employees to park onsite. If a business cannot have all of its employees park onsite, they pay a vehicle registration fee ($58 per car per year) and an off-site rental of Town of Yountville parking space fee ($1,729 per vehicle per year). The Town staff is responsible for enforcement of the EPMP.

The program attempts to remove employees from parking in neighborhoods for the duration of an employee’s shift. While visitors may park in neighborhoods they park for a shorter period, an employee’s stay in town is much longer, and the impacts are more significant to the area and residents who live there.  

The EPMP is tied to a business’s use permit and is a factor in how many employees a company can hire and have on-site.  

Why was the EPMP Created?

The goal of the EPMP is to mitigate employee parking impacts on residential neighborhoods. These burdens include the loss of parking on residential streets, noise impacts from conversation and radios, smoking, and trash.

Who is Participating in the EMPM?

All businesses that have opened in Yountville since 2015 must enroll in the EPMP. In addition to new businesses coming to town, a business that pulls permits for a remodel may be added to the EPMP or have its status re-evaluated. 

Currently, there are 21 businesses enrolled in the Employee Parking Management Program and represents over 450 employee vehicles. That is an increase of 8 businesses over the last year.

Those businesses are: 

Impacts on Businesses

So what are the impacts of the EPMP on businesses? In 2020 the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group came to the town with a proposal to update the parking lot at Edward James Courtyard. The updates would have triggered businesses in the complex to enroll in the Employee Parking Management Plan. Because of this, parking lot improvements were abandoned. Although this is just one example, it shows that the EMPM is a serious consideration for businesses who wish to do business in Yountville. 

So is it Working?

So is the Employee Parking Management Plan working? Well, I think that depends on who you ask. The Town staff says yes, it is working, and the more accepting of the program a business is, the more the employees follow the rules. When an employer does not follow the rules or does not believe in the EPMP, it causes problems not only for the Town staff but also for residents and other business owners. It also brings up other questions about parking. Is the EPMP enough, or does more need to be done to address parking issues in town? Let’s discuss those questions next week.