By Town Crier Staff

The city opened its downtown parking permit program to business owners this week as public works employees painted white circles in stalls designated for such parking.

Permits will be available for sale at the Los Altos Police Department, located behind Los Altos City Hall on San Antonio Road. The department is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and applicants must apply in person.

The program charges $12 per employee per year, or $4 a quarter. Abby Veeser, the city’s economic development coordinator and chief coordinator of the parking program, said the city expects to sell about 800 permits, with 650 spaces being designated for permit parking.

During the first two weeks of the program, business owners and employees will qualify for one permit per 500 square feet of business space. Business owners must supply their business license numbers, total square footage and the number of employees.

Beginning Sept. 29, Veeser said permits will be available to individual employees on a first-come, first-serve basis. She added permits, to be affixed to the right-side, back-window in vehicles, are transferrable between employees.

Also changing are the parking times. While parking limits in the central plaza remain at two hours, parking in the north and south plazas have 3-hour limits.

The permit program, approved by the council in July, was created to free up parking for shoppers. However, Veeser said the program would not solve the problem of employees who continually move their cars in the plazas to avoid exceeding time limits.