OCEANSIDE - Beachgoers and downtown visitors will have more public parking than they do now when three major waterfront developments are finished, but that won't solve the growing pains that city officials say the area will endure the next few years.

Downtown's parking landscape will change dramatically as more hospitality oriented businesses open and people begin living in new downtown condo complexes, city officials said last week.

"Good times breed parking problems," said Kim Heim, executive director of MainStreet Oceanside, a nonprofit that focuses on the historical preservation and redevelopment of the downtown area. "I think that we might very well be parking-challenged if the downtown redevelopment area becomes wildly successful," he added, using as an example San Diego's flourishing Gaslamp District.

The biggest catalysts for change in downtown Oceanside will be the $187 million Westin hotel and time-share project proposed by S.D. Malkin Properties Inc., the Wyndham Timeshare Resort, which is nearing completion, and the five-block CityMark mixed-use project that is still in the review process.

CityMark will eliminate four city parking lots totaling 476 spaces, according to a city parking study. It is the only one of the three projects that is being built on current public parking lots.

All three developers are building underground parking to serve their projects and will pay the city an amount to be determined to replace lost street parking with a new 255-space city parking lot west of the railroad tracks and east of Myers Street between Tyson and Oak streets.

Additionally, a separate multistory city parking garage that could have approximately 450 spaces is planned at Pier View Way and Cleveland Street, said Kathy Baker, the city's redevelopment manager.

The city hopes to open the new lot within the next year, and the garage will be built when construction begins on the Westin, she said.

While parking will be free at the new city lot, it has not been decided whether there will be a fee to park at the garage, said Jane McVey, the city's economic development director.

In all, Wyndham will have 233 paid public and private parking spaces and make up five in the city lot; S.D. Malkin will have 580 paid public and private parking spaces with 33 at the new city lot; and CityMark will include 935 paid public and private spaces, and pay for 160 spaces in the city lot.

Making waves

S.D. Malkin is aiming to build the Oceanside Beach Resort on two blocks bounded by Pacific Street on the west, Myers Street to the east, Seagaze Drive to the south and Pier View Way on the north.

The project's north block would have up to 120 "resort keys," a combination of hotel rooms and time-share units, a restaurant and shops, according to an environmental impact report released in September. The south block would include up to 293 hotel rooms in an eight-story tower.

A mix of paid public and private parking will be provided in two levels under each block that would be built to form one large garage extending beneath Mission Avenue.

Malkin's two blocks, now primarily vacant, have been used in the past for special event parking but are not included in the city's parking totals.

The development, which could be considered by the City Council early next year, would be bounded on the north by the Wyndham Timeshare Resort and to the east by the CityMark mixed-use project.

City Mark preliminary designs call for five large buildings with condominiums, stores, shops, hotel rooms, and restaurants on five blocks, four of which are now city parking lots. Private and retail parking will be underground.

The seven-story Wyndham Timeshare Resort includes 136 time-share units, 32 hotel rooms, a restaurant, more than 7,000 square feet of commercial space, and two levels of private underground parking. Wyndham's 1.5-acre property is bounded by Pacific and Myers streets, Pier View Way and Civic Center Drive.

According to the city study, put together in 2002 by a consulting firm, the downtown area bounded by Neptune Way to the north, Horne Street to the east, Wisconsin Avenue to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the west, has 7,177 parking spaces. Nineteen off-street parking lots provide 2,217 parking spaces, or 31 percent, the study shows. The majority of spaces, 4,960, or 69 percent, are street parking.

A new thought process

Heim said that as the buildings take shape and downtown becomes a focus for people ranging from office employees to residents and tourists, many will view parking as distressed.

"It's people's natural desire to park in the immediate vicinity of the service or activity they want," said Heim. "If they can't park within a block or so, they deem it inadequate parking."

Instead, he said, people need to change the way they think about parking in downtown Oceanside.

"What it really means is we have to accommodate more people as pedestrians," he said. "It will be a little bit of a learning curve."

The Sprinter, he said, will provide a low-cost alternative similar to that provided by the San Diego Trolley, that will allow people to park at various Sprinter lots and take the light rail to Oceanside's downtown transit station.

Other options, he said, are shuttles or pedicabs.

Bill Bettis, an Oceanside resident who was waiting at the transit station on a recent weekday, said shuttles make sense, especially for events such as the new downtown Sunset Market.

"It (the market) brings a lot of people, which is good, but people have to park a long way away to get there," said Bettis, who said he uses North County Transit District buses and Amtrak regularly.

Bob Carlson, who live in San Marcos and regularly drives to Oceanside to take the Amtrak to Los Angeles, said that while parking availability is better on some days than others, he would like to see long-term parking open in the city's transit center parking garage.

Event planning

As far as downtown events that draw large crowds, such as Harbor Days and the city's Freedom Days parade and fireworks, McVey said the city plans for event parking as the events occur and that it doesn't factor into parking required for development projects.

She said parking for such events is pulled from as many areas as possible including Camp Pendleton, harbor parking lots and city streets.

The traffic and parking crunch will be exacerbated over the next few years as downtown construction peaks and some lots are used as storage areas for construction equipment and supplies.

"The good news is we have seven contiguous blocks that will be in play during construction," said McVey, explaining that while the CityMark project will be completed in phases depending on the market, the hotel will have a more striking impact because both blocks will be under construction at the same time.

McVey said the construction staging areas will be rotated throughout the seven lots as the projects move forward.

Mission Avenue will be closed for about 20 months at the time hotel construction starts, McVey said, and traffic diverted while the hole for the underground parking is dug.

"It is what it is," she said. "You can't build buildings without building them."

Heim said that on a busy beach day, as many as 10,000 to 15,0000 might come downtown.

"That in itself is a pretty daunting task if any portion of the parking is temporarily unavailable," he said.

Contact staff writer Marga Kellogg at (760) 901-4067 or mkellogg@nctimes.com