Last December, Hermosa Beach made its 388 silver-post meters free from Dec. 3 through Christmas Day. As of this week, the plan for this December is zero free days. The City Council voted 3-2 on Oct. 13 to suspend the program for 2026, and Mayor Mike Detoy, Mayor Pro Tem Michael Keegan and Councilmember Rob Saemann voted yes.
Money was the headline reason, but the debate itself kept coming back to something else. For decades, the city has bagged its meters every holiday season without ever measuring what that free parking does for the shops on Pier Avenue. One council member wants this December to be the year someone finds out.
A $66,000-a-week cost and a payoff no one can see
Senior Management Analyst Ken Bales estimated that a three-week program costs the city about $200,000 in lost meter and citation revenue, and that four weeks would cost close to $270,000, according to Easy Reader News. The Daily Breeze reported that the city loses about $66,000 for every week the meters stay free.
What all that money buys is much harder to show. "There is limited evidence demonstrating that the resulting economic activity offsets the city's subsidy," Bales told the council, as Easy Reader reported. A year earlier, the council had asked the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce for foot-traffic data from the analytics firm Placer.ai. At the next meeting, Chamber President Michelle Crispin explained why the numbers the council wants don't exist in a usable form. "Sales taxes are reported quarterly so we can't isolate December sales or put an exact dollar amount on the impact of free parking," she said, according to Easy Reader's follow-up.
The cost figure itself is also disputed. Councilmember Dean Francois argued that staff's numbers reflect gross parking enforcement revenue, before credit card fees, vendor fees and enforcement costs come out. So the council is weighing a cost some members think is overstated against a benefit no one can measure. That explains why the same question comes back every fall.
How the council got to zero
The Oct. 13 vote took four motions. Keegan moved for one week. Saemann proposed three weeks, Dec. 4 to Dec. 25. Francois pushed for four weeks to match Manhattan Beach. Councilmember Ray Jackson moved for two weeks with the Chamber picking the dates, and that motion failed 2-3. Keegan pointed out that the city had cut the program to two weeks once before, in 2009, during the last financial crisis.
Detoy then made the case for zero weeks and described it as a way to measure the program, as Easy Reader reported:
"I think the cleanest way to get data is not to do it one year and to do four weeks the next year."
He also noted that the council had already cut more than $4 million from this year's budget. Saemann withdrew his three-week motion and seconded Detoy's.
That reasoning changes how to read the vote. Under Detoy's plan, a December without free parking becomes a baseline, and a four-week program the following year is what gets compared against it. A downtown with full meters this December would be the first season in a long time that shows what Pier Avenue does with nothing bagged.
The merchants brought their own numbers
At the Oct. 27 meeting, business owners filled the chamber, and several of them answered the data question with their own figures. Easy Reader reported the testimony:
- Gum Tree on Pier Avenue. Co-owner Lori Ford said the store does 25% of its sales in December and has asked for the program every year for 18 years. Her social media post about the decision was viewed more than 240,000 times. "This is your data," she told the council.
- Sol Baby on Pier Avenue. Owner Gina Rothwell, in business for 20 years there, said Hermosa can't be the only one of the three beach cities without some form of free holiday parking, "especially with Hermosa being the smallest and the one that has the least amount of retail."
- Sand Spa. A representative said that going from three weeks last year to zero days this year takes away one of the few tools small businesses have during the most important time of the year.
- Uncorked. Co-owner Kathy Knoll said she would ask for at least three weeks.
- Fritto Misto. Co-owner Ludmilla Kerr spoke for a restaurant that has been open 27 years.
Gum Tree's figure helps explain why the argument stays stuck. If a quarter of a shop's year happens in December, the stakes for that shop are large. That one month still disappears into a quarterly sales tax report, which is the measurement problem Crispin described.
The neighboring cities matter here too. According to the Daily Breeze, Hermosa staff said Manhattan Beach offers free parking from Thanksgiving through Christmas and Redondo Beach offers it during the week of Christmas. That puts Hermosa's zero weeks next to roughly a month in Manhattan Beach and a week in Redondo.
What could change on Nov. 10
The council couldn't vote at the Oct. 27 meeting because holiday parking wasn't on the agenda. Saemann said conversations with business owners had changed his mind, and he asked for the item to come back, preferably at the next meeting. Francois and Jackson supported the request. The city's meeting recap lists the next regular meeting for Tuesday, Nov. 10, and the city's notice for that meeting says its agenda goes up at least 72 hours beforehand.
These are the options raised so far, with the cost of each based on staff's estimates:
- Zero weeks. This is the current decision from Oct. 13, and it's the setup Detoy described as a clean comparison year.
- Two weeks, Dec. 11 to Dec. 25. Saemann proposed this on Oct. 27. At staff's estimate of about $66,000 a week, two weeks comes to roughly $130,000.
- Three weeks. Francois said he would propose this as a compromise, and the Chamber asked for "at least two weeks." Staff put three weeks at about $200,000.
- Weekends only, Thanksgiving to Christmas. Jani Lang, who runs a sales agency for specialty retailers, suggested free parking on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays across that stretch.
Every option except the first gives up some of the clean baseline Detoy wanted. Any free week this December means another year without the measurement both sides keep asking for.
Parking downtown at full price
All of the proposed free windows start after the Hermosa for the Holidays weekend, so it runs at regular rates whatever the council decides. Here are the city's posted rates and lots. The rate increases took effect Nov. 15, 2025.
| Where | Address | Spaces | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Street and commercial meters | Downtown | Varies | $3.00 per hour |
| Lot A | 1101 Hermosa Ave. | 143 | $3.50 per hour |
| Lot B | 59 13th Ct. | 38 | $3.50 per hour |
| Lot C, the parking structure | 1301 Hermosa Ave. | 254 | $3.50 per hour |
Last year's free meters had two- or three-hour limits, according to the Daily Breeze. Free or not, a long afternoon on Pier Plaza fits the structure at 1301 Hermosa Ave. better than a street meter.
The season's dates, set now
The Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce has set Hermosa for the Holidays for Saturday, Nov. 21, and Sunday, Nov. 22, mostly on Pier Plaza.
Saturday, Nov. 21
- 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Holiday Pop-Up Market and Letters to Santa on Pier Plaza
- 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: Live music at Java Man, 157 Pier Ave.
- Noon to 9 p.m.: A Ferris wheel near the Pier Head, sponsored by the Skechers Foundation
- 2 to 7 p.m.: Rock the Plaza concert by South Bay Music Connection
Sunday, Nov. 22
- 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Pictures with Santa on Pier Plaza
- 1 to 6 p.m.: Nonprofit Giving Village
- 4 to 8 p.m.: Rock for Tots concert
- 5:45 to 6:15 p.m.: Tree lighting ceremony and Santa's arrival on Pier Plaza
An Elf on the Shelf scavenger hunt runs all day both days. Java Man recently changed hands. Easy Reader reported that South Bay Hospitality Group's Patrick Mescall and Brian Eldridge now own Java Man and Ocean Diner and plan to keep both places' character.
The city's calendar fills in the rest of the season:
- Nov. 11, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.: Veterans Day ceremony at the Veterans Memorial and Community Center, 710 Pier Ave.
- Dec. 5, 9 a.m. to noon: Sand Snowman Contest at 15th Street and the shoreline.
- Dec. 6, 3 to 5 p.m.: Community Chanukah Celebration on Pier Plaza, hosted by the Jewish Community Center, with a menorah lighting.
- Dec. 12, 9 a.m. to noon: Mychal's Learning Place's California Great Santa Stroll, from Pier Plaza to the Manhattan Beach Pier.
Three of those dates fall inside the proposed free windows. Saemann's two-week plan would cover the Santa Stroll on Dec. 12. A three-week run starting around Dec. 4, like Saemann's original Oct. 13 proposal, would also cover the Sand Snowman Contest on Dec. 5 and the Chanukah celebration on Dec. 6. If the item comes back on Nov. 10 and passes, some of those mornings downtown could cost nothing instead of $3 an hour.
The downtown blocks that are debating parking this month are the same blocks people weigh when they think about living within walking distance of Pier Plaza. If you'd like to talk about how downtown Hermosa's rhythms, from December foot traffic to where the parking actually is, play into a move on this side of town, Deborah Naumovski and the DnG team follow these council calendars closely. Let's Connect.
