This summer, the City of Goleta will start construction on its Hollister Avenue Old Town interim striping project. Along with it will come timed parking restrictions, which have had mixed reactions in the community.

The city originally announced it would begin enforcing 90-minute parking restrictions along Hollister Avenue in Old Town this spring, but then quickly decided to postpone the timed parking to coincide with the striping project.

In a statement one week after its Feb. 3 announcement of the restrictions, the city said it decided to delay implementation to “minimize issues surrounding loss of parking spaces associated with the project.”

The original plan also involved adding red curbs to certain Hollister Avenue intersections, which would have resulted in the loss of 13 parking spaces. The striping project would recover those spaces and more with angled parking, however.

When the timed restrictions do go into effect, the 90-minute parking limits will be enforced along Hollister Avenue between Kinman and Orange avenues, as well as the first block of side streets, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, unless otherwise noted.

Some business owners said the restrictions would enable their customers to actually find parking, while other people were not fond of the idea.

“I think it’s a good move,” said Alejandro Cardenas, owner of The Jewelry Mart at 5850 Hollister Ave.

Cardenas, who has been in Goleta for more than 30 years, said he deals with people everyday who live nearby and park in front of his business all day or overnight. He says his customers aren’t able to come in to pick up orders because no parking is available.

Andi Modugno, owner of Lazy Eye Shop, a resale store at 5879 Hollister Ave., said the timed parking restrictions could potentially help with parking turnover, but expressed some concern for employee parking.

“For me and other employees, it makes it harder,” she said. “It feels like a big experiment.”

Mel Schumacher and Jon Marshall, who used to live in the area and were visiting Goleta, also questioned where people working in Old Town would park.

“Before they (implement timed parking restrictions), they should probably figure out where everybody that is working here is parking,” Schumacher said. “That should be No. 1.

“I get where people will then park eight, nine hours, but 90 minutes — an hour and a half — doesn’t do much.”

They both acknowledged the need for parking, but suggested longer intervals for the restrictions.

“We obviously need more parking,” Marshall said. “I would do like two hours because 90 minutes — you go to sit down to eat somewhere, 90 minutes goes by really fast. Two hours is a little bit more reasonable.”

Schumacher suggested looking at downtown San Luis Obispo as a model, and Cardenas also mentioned downtown Ventura.

The Hollister Avenue Old Town interim striping project is scheduled to begin in early summer and will include one vehicle and bike lane in each direction, and back-in angled 90-minute parking on the north side the street and parallel 90-minute parking along the south side of the street.

The project includes other pavement and traffic signal restoration and upgrades.