Millbrae has already decided whether Broadway gets parking meters. The City Council approved the framework for a paid-parking program at its June 23 meeting and told staff to find an operator. Staff plans to recommend a vendor at the November 10 council meeting, and the first meters are scheduled to go in at the beginning of 2027.
That leaves the details, and so far nobody has decided them. Rates, enforcement hours, residential permits and how the meters feel to use are all still open. They're also the details that reshaped San Bruno's program budget next door. The rest of this post looks at what's locked, what's open, and why the open part matters more.
What the council locked in June
The June 23 action did three things the vendor choice won't undo, according to the San Mateo Daily Journal. It set up a parking enterprise fund, so meter revenue has to go to parking-related needs. It approved automated license plate readers for parking administration. And it told staff to issue a request for proposals. The paper reported that the license plate data would be kept apart from law enforcement and wouldn't be used for criminal investigations.
The council deliberately put off the rest. Rates, residential permits and the choice of operating agency were all left for later. At a council discussion of rates and neighborhood impacts, covered by the Daily Journal in "Paid parking in downtown Millbrae? Councilmembers weigh rates, impacts on neighbors," Mayor Reuben Holober said the program should break even without leaving people feeling overcharged. Councilmember Anders Fung said the challenge on nearby unmetered streets would be making sure residents still get first access to parking. Those two goals set the terms for every decision still ahead.
Downtown businesses heard about it before residents did. In February 2026 the city invited them to a February 23 open house about changes on Broadway, Park Place and Park Boulevard, and said wider community input would come after that business-focused first round.
The equipment rules are already written
The city's paid-parking RFP, released August 5, 2026, already settles a lot of what a resident will see at the curb. Some details are fixed no matter which company wins:
- Pay-by-plate. You enter your license plate instead of a space number or a dashboard receipt.
- Card, contactless and coins. All three have to work on the equipment.
- ParkMobile or PayByPhone. The mobile app will be one of these two.
- Short-term spaces. The specs include spaces limited to 20 minutes or less, for quick stops.
- Residential permit enforcement. Vendors are pricing two versions: one covering the current permit area and one covering an expanded area.
The hardware is still open. The city is weighing multi-space pay stations, single-space meters and double-space meters. That's why the October 22 open house at 450 Poplar Avenue was built around testing rather than presenting. Provider A set up in the David J. Chetcuti Room and Provider B at the Millbrae Library. The city set it up so attendees could run practice transactions on pay stations, meters, mobile apps and online resident permits, with no real money changing hands, and fill out a short survey on site. The Daily Journal said staff wanted feedback on readability and screen usability and stressed that the event wasn't a sales pitch.
Usability is what that survey was measuring. It's the first of the open details that also shaped San Bruno's experience.
The open questions are the ones San Bruno had to answer
City Manager Tom Williams told the council that meters are proven to increase turnover and aren't designed to make money. He pointed to Burlingame, San Mateo and Redwood City as examples of programs that work, the Daily Journal reported. The same article noted that San Bruno's program had dealt with technical problems and system changes and was facing a roughly $300,000 funding gap. Former Mayor Ann Schneider raised that concern along with another one, that paid parking downtown would push cars onto nearby residential streets.
San Bruno's numbers show how far a program can drift from its forecast. The Daily Journal's report on San Bruno's finances, from a September 22 council discussion, said early projections called for $3 million a year in revenue against just over $500,000 in annual operating costs. The program has brought in less than $1.3 million a year. For 2027, staff projected $1.13 million in revenue against $1.45 million in spending, not counting a $2.4 million startup loan backed by the general fund.
Each of Millbrae's open items has a counterpart in San Bruno's reporting:
| Still undecided in Millbrae | What San Bruno's experience shows |
|---|---|
| Hourly rates | Minimum purchases of $1.50 for one hour or $3 for two drew early complaints, as NBC Bay Area reported in May 2024 |
| Paid hours and which streets | Later changes added free morning hours and removed meters on El Camino, which the Daily Journal says cost about $216,000 in revenue along with discounted employee parking |
| Meter hardware and usability | Broken meters and required plate entry drew complaints from residents and businesses |
| Residential permit area | Residents worried about spillover parking from the start |
San Bruno's policy changes were reasonable responses to the people using downtown. Their cost shows something else. Every rule that changes after launch also changes the budget, and Millbrae's enterprise fund is supposed to break even on its own.
The one rate number that has circulated in Millbrae was never adopted. The Daily Journal reported that a base rate of $1.25 an hour had been considered earlier, and that the city would need a cost model to find what breaking even takes. The latest reporting says councilmembers haven't discussed or decided rates.
Broadway goes first because the old counts point there
The rollout comes in two stages. Meters go along Broadway and the immediate downtown corridor first, and El Camino Real follows later. The current plan allows for up to 750 paid spaces.
The most detailed count of downtown parking demand in the city's files is several years old. A December 2021 Fehr & Peers memo, prepared for the proposed 959 El Camino Real mixed-use project, counted 1,099 stalls in its study area. It found that overall occupancy stayed below supply, with the heaviest demand on Broadway and in the Millbrae Square West Lot.
That pattern is the kind of problem meters are meant to fix. Overall supply looked adequate in 2021, but the spaces people wanted most stayed full. A price on the busiest blocks nudges long stays toward less crowded parking and opens up curb space for a quick stop. That's the turnover argument Williams made. The 2021 counts come from a different downtown, and the new Downtown Parking Management Program will be tested against today's traffic.
Schneider's spillover concern plays out on the same map. The city's preferential parking program map shows existing permit zones labeled A, B, A/C and C, along with city parking lots B, C and G. Whether permit enforcement stays inside those zones or grows into the RFP's expanded area is one of the choices still ahead. On a residential street a block or two off Broadway, that choice may matter more than the hourly rate.
The calendar from here
- November 10, 2026. Staff is scheduled to recommend a parking vendor to the City Council. The RFP's earlier timeline aimed for an October contract award and called its dates subject to change, so treat November 10 as the current target, not a fixed date.
- After the vendor decision. Rates, paid hours and permit terms still need council action. None of them has been set yet.
- Beginning of 2027. First-phase meters on Broadway and the immediate downtown corridor are planned to go in.
- Later. El Camino Real gets meters in the second phase. No date has been given.
Residents who missed the open house can still send comments to [email protected], the address the city has listed for parking questions since its February business outreach. The city points people to the Downtown Parking Management Program project page to learn more. Council agendas for November 10 are where the next round of details will show up first.
How a block parks affects daily life, and it shows up when a home sells too, from the parking notes in a listing to the questions buyers ask at an open house. If you live near Broadway and want to talk through how the permit zones and the 2027 rollout could affect your street, Lana Morin Pierce is glad to go over it with you. Book a consultation whenever it suits you.
