By Edmond Ortiz
New Braunfels officials are exploring how best local residents and downtown merchants could benefit more from the city’s fledgling managed downtown parking program.
A parking system overview
Council was briefed Feb. 23 on the city’s 6-month-old downtown managed parking program, which has gotten mixed reviews from New Braunfels residents and affected business owners, as well as out-of-towners.
Council voted early in 2025 to have the city enter into a contract with Interstate Parking, which is now serving as the city’s parking management company for both downtown New Braunfels and the city’s river parks.
According to Jeff Jewell, the city’s economic and community development director, the first six months of a managed downtown parking system has been highlighted by increases in available parking in high demand areas, visitation by residents and tourists, sales tax collection, usage of employee parking programs, and events and other program activations.
Jewell said paid parking is constantly available in high-occupancy areas and on peak demand times primarily because of high turnover, meaning there is a high frequency of drivers filling, leaving and refilling such parking spaces during specific timeframes.
The city, through Interstate Parking, manages 59% of the 3,500-plus parking spaces available in the downtown New Braunfels area, with 34% of those spaces on the street. Motorists parking in a paid space must use their smartphone to scan a nearby sign with a QR code, enter their license plate number, phone number, length of stay, and a payment method if they plan to be downtown for more than one hour.
Almost another 1,000 on- and off-street parking spaces in the downtown area remain completely free. New Braunfels residents may register online for their free Resident River Parking Permits to use when parking along the Comal River or Guadalupe River.
Jewell said the city so far determines that the managed parking system is working. However, he acknowledged many people who have used paid parking in downtown New Braunfels have offered complaints, including being sure where paid and free parking spaces exist, how the managed system works, and wondering whether more residents and business owners could be further incentivized to use the program.
“We’re going to be developing projects over the next couple of months and taking them to (the city’s parking advisory committee), hashing them out in that environment, and then any recommendations would come back to the City Council,” Jewell said.
Jewell added that city staff welcomes ideas from council and the community at large, such as boosting pedestrian safety, upgrading striping and lighting,and seeing if the city could expand its public parking supply by working with more private property owners.
Ideas on how to enhance downtown parking
Tony Janowiec Interstate Parking’s president and CEO, said 78% of all recorded, managed parking sessions around downtown New Braunfels, during the program’s first six months, lasted two hours or less.
People who typically use a paid parking space downtown are likely to stay there longer than two hours mainly on weekends, Janowiec said.
”Daytime weekday people are in and out a little quicker for whatever their downtown needs are,” Janowiec added. “On Friday and Saturday with our fantastic, growing dining scene, you can imagine why people are resonating downtown longer.”
A few council members said they have heard from residents who wish the free one-hour option were expanded to two hours because, in some instances, people who originally intended to spend one hour downtown may be there longer because of a lengthy wait at a bar, restaurant or event that they are visiting.
A few council members also said while some downtown business owners like the paid parking system, others feel modifications to the program could benefit their venture so long as there is no added layer of bureaucracy.
Christina and Dave Cinotto, owners of Bootleggers Pizza Parlor and The Oyster Bar, two downtown enterprises, said the paid parking system could be improved by such things as possibly giving local residents the option of having a second hour of free parking. Council members such as Mary Ann Labowski agreed.
“For a coffee shop or a bank, one hour is delightful. But you all know, one hour for a restaurant is not enough (time),” Dave Cinotto said.
Christina Cinotto agreed that some local residents may feel a bit resentful about having to pay for going over one hour while visiting casual downtown businesses, such as a bar, restaurant, a shop or office.
New Braunfels Downtown Association President Clarisa DeSanto proposed the city revamp how it provides streamlined information about the paid parking program to residents and visitors alike. She added many people are misinformed about the system, particularly via social media.
“I highly encourage us to look at another avenue to get this information out. I would suggest maybe looking at going back to old school and going to print and getting out of the social media world a bit for the factual information at hand,” she added.
While council members asked city staff to entertain possible ways to improve the parking program, Janowiec recommended waiting until local officials have one full year of data to offer a full, detailed platform of ideas for enhancing the system.
“Our job is to manage a toolbox of solutions for your community. In general, there really aren’t any right or wrong answers,” Janowiec said. “The guiding principles and the goals and objectives that you create for the program is how we build the system, and as long as those goals and objectives remain intact, it’s our job to continue to manage those goals.”
