Chula Vista enhances more than a quarter mile of downtown

CHULA VISTA, Calif. – More than 430 parking meters throughout downtown Chula Vista have just been upgraded.

Locals and visitors may be used to searching for loose change, as the old meters in the area only accepted coins, which was an occasional headache.

“I had to go in and break a dollar bill and you know it was a hassle,” Keola Tolentino said.

The new M5 SingleSpace Smart Meters can be found along many streets in the city’s Downtown Parking District, where businesses will receive flyers to distribute to customers about the new system, according to the city.

Some people FOX 5 spoke to actually liked the old-fashioned approach.

“I’m glad they’re still accepting coins,” George Romero said.

The new meters still accept coins, but you can now also use credit or debit cards, even contactless options like Apple Pay.

“I use Apple Pay a lot. I think it’s so much easier, so I think it will definitely be helpful,” said David Lopez.

The City of Chula Vista tells FOX 5 the new meters were added primarily to make things more convenient. In keeping with this theme, users can also use the IPS Park Smarter app to pay, find available parking spaces and receive notifications about how much time remains on their meter.