Sonora Council Approves Purchase Of Downtown Parking Lot

Sonora, CA – The city of Sonora approves of buying a downtown parking lot.

At its Monday (4-1) meeting, the Sonora City Council voted in favor of purchasing a parking lot at the corner of Church and Stewart Street for $124,000 from the Irving J. Symons Foundation, a supporting organization of the Sonora Area Foundation.

“The city is moving forward,” stated Councilmember Matt Hawkins. “One of the complaints I always get and I know the rest of the council gets is the lack of parking downtown, especially on that end, so we’re doing something.”

The city already owns a nearby parking lot at Church Street and Washington Street, so this lot would add to the public parking inventory in that area. The proposed purchase is designed to be of public benefit. Councilmember Andy Merrill took it a step further, stating, “In the future, this could be a very huge acquisition for the city of Sonora. We’re talking about what I would like to see it be prime real estate, right off the corner of Stockton and (Highway) 49 there. We’re talking about the heart of downtown, so I could see big things happening for the city. The parking lot is a good immediate need that we have. There could be some really awesome developments on the horizon with that property.”

In the end, the parking lot purchase was approved unanimously, with Mayor Mark Plummer and Councilmember Suzanne Cruz not in attendance for the vote.