Instead of being enforced 24 hours a day and requiring $2 visitor permits, the permit program now calls for enforcement from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. and no visitor permits. Instead of being enforced every day but Sunday, the proposal now would enforce permits only Monday through Friday. And instead of being enforced year-round, it now would be enforced only from September through April.

Stewart said the council, based on student feedback, will consider adding some two-hour parking spots on each block to help alleviate any remaining concerns about visitor parking. That change would require an additional vote by the council at a later date if the parking permit program is approved tonight.

If approved, the program would begin in September.

"I don't know why if you were a resident of North Joaquin you wouldn't want this program now," Stewart said. "It reduces traffic in the neighborhood as well as providing enough parking for everyone who lives there."

The city would sell the annual, $25 hanging permits to homeowners, landlords and business owners. Landlords then would provide them to tenants. The permit holder can transfer the permit to other vehicles.

The city would issue only enough permits to cover the difference between off-street parking spaces provided by landlords and the number of legal occupants authorized by city code to live in homes and apartments in the neighborhood.

Some area rentals have more tenants than allowed by city ordinance, an issue the council hopes to address through the parking permit program.

Some landlords and residents expressed frustration that the parking permit program was necessitated by the council's decision earlier this year to approve a major new apartment complex called Joaquin Village. The city generally requires developers to provide .75 parking spaces per tenant. The council approved Joaquin Village, which will have 952 tenants, with .62 parking spaces per tenant.

At the time, Joaquin Village promised to rent many of its apartments to students who don't have cars. And councilmembers told unhappy neighborhood residents that they would implement a parking permit program to ensure the complex complied. Joaquin Village will be ineligible for parking permits, Stewart said.

The council codified the plan. Joaquin Village will not, by city ordinance, be allowed to obtain an occupancy permit unless the city has a parking permit program.

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com