Stand at the corner of La Mesa Boulevard and Spring Street on Saturday, December 12, and the west end of the La Mesa Village Association's 11th annual Holiday in the Village will be right in front of you. The event runs from noon to 9 p.m. and fills La Mesa Blvd. from Spring Street to 4th Street. Behind you is a construction fence around the MTS Spring Street Station lot at 4250 Spring St. For years, people who drove in for holiday shopping parked there.
The lot closed to general parking on September 14. Only a few ADA spaces are left. MTS's project page points drivers to the Grossmont and Massachusetts Avenue stations, and to 70th Street for Green Line riders. The agency's station parking table now says there's no transit center parking at Spring Street "through mid-2028."
That changes the Village's busiest December Saturday. The boulevard was already running out of parking before the fence went up, and the city's short-term fixes are measured in single digits. For this event, the trolley platform is the main way in.
What's going up at Spring Street
The lot is becoming Spring View, a transit-oriented development by Affirmed Housing on MTS land. MTS described it as a project of nearly $116 million. Plans call for 147 apartment homes, rebuilt transit parking, a public restroom for riders and a break area for bus drivers. MTS says building on its surplus land at transit centers brings in revenue for transit operations.
According to the MTS board packet from October 15, construction is underway and should take 18 to 24 months. In June, Times of San Diego reported that trolley and bus service at Spring Street wasn't expected to stop during construction. The station is still open, but you can't park there.
That puts this year's Holiday in the Village and next year's in the same spot. Both fall inside the closure, and the lot won't come back until after the December 2027 event.
The Village was short on spaces before the fence went up
The Village's parking problem started before the closure. In March, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on a new 147-unit building at 8181 Allison Ave., a few blocks from the boulevard. It has 103 one-bedroom and 44 two-bedroom apartments and a 108-space garage. The same story said a building of more than 100 units planned on Palm Avenue for spring 2027 would have about 70 parking spaces. Councilmember Laura Lothian told the paper:
"Parking in downtown is a problem and it's becoming a crisis."
By late May, the city was looking for spaces one at a time. The Union-Tribune reported that the City Council voted unanimously to have staff study five low-cost ideas that Lothian and Vice Mayor Lauren Cazares came up with after walking the Village:
- Shortening the red curb on Allison Avenue to add metered parking.
- Moving bike racks on La Mesa Boulevard to make room for golf-cart spaces.
- Removing trees behind Pete's Place to add about five or six spaces.
- Converting the loading zone in front of Turpin and Rattan Engineering.
- Painting parking spaces on the streets leading into downtown between Allison Avenue, Spring Street, 4th Street and Fresno Avenue.
Lothian told the paper that a parking structure "is just not in the cards" for now because it "would cost millions of dollars." She also put the problem in positive terms: "Downtown La Mesa is actually having a good problem; it's becoming so popular and so crowded that our parking infrastructure hasn't kept up." According to the March story, City Manager Greg Humora said another detailed parking study is planned as part of the Downtown Village Specific Plan, to figure out what level of demand would justify a garage.
All of this was about ordinary weekends and Friday market nights. December 12 will bring more than 100 vendors, an ice rink and holiday shoppers from across East County, and the Spring Street lot won't be there to take the overflow.
Three ways in on December 12
On an event Saturday, the Village has three practical options, and they work very differently.
| Option | Where | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Trolley to La Mesa Blvd Station | Orange Line | MTS's event guide says the station is steps from the festivities. Bus Routes 1 and 852 also serve the area. |
| Park and ride in | Grossmont Transit Center, 8601 Fletcher Pkwy., or Massachusetts Avenue Station, 1787 San Altos Pl. | Grossmont has 220 spaces on the first floor of its garage and is served by the Orange and Green Lines. Massachusetts Avenue has 241 spaces and is served by the Orange Line. |
| Village meters | La Mesa Blvd. and surrounding streets | $1.50 an hour, with a two-hour limit at most meters. |
Parking in the Village itself costs more than it did a year ago. FOX 5 reported in October 2025 that the council approved raising all 433 downtown meters to $1.50 an hour, starting January 1, up from 50 or 75 cents depending on the spot. The city's parking FAQ says the four-hour spots are in the Allison Avenue municipal lot and on Allison Avenue and Lemon Avenue between Spring Street and 4th Street. Everywhere else, most meters have a two-hour limit.
The time of day you arrive makes a difference. Meters are enforced Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The event runs until 9 p.m., so the last three hours are past enforcement. If you get there at noon and stay through the evening, you'll run into the two-hour limit in the early afternoon. Getting there around 4 p.m. means paying for two hours at most. Smart meters take cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and you can add time remotely with the ParkSmarter app through the QR code on each meter. The FAQ also says topping up the meter to stay past the posted limit can get you a ticket.
The trolley avoids all of that, and the platform is at the event.
What's waiting between Spring and 4th
The Village Association's sponsor list ties the event to businesses that are on the boulevard the rest of the year:
- The Shift Studio runs the ice-skating rink, the mini golf and the Winter Wonderland.
- Pam Rader hosts the Mrs. Claus Reading Nook.
- Pete's Place has the Holiday 360 Photo Op. It's the same business whose back trees came up in the council's May parking list.
- La Mesa Lumber hosts the Santa Nook.
More than 100 vendors line the street with art, home decor, handmade goods, jewelry, clothing and food. In the Kids Shopping Program, children 10 and under can shop at 50-plus vendors selling items for $5 or less from noon to 9 p.m. Those vendors have an asterisk on the event map. The Elf Scavenger Hunt runs from 12:15 to 7:45 p.m. Kids look for 12 elves hidden in storefronts between Spring Street and 4th Street, and anyone who finds them all can enter to win an elf. Instructions are at the Information Booth.
The scavenger hunt takes families into the boulevard's shops, cafes and bars. Those businesses deal with the parking shortage every day, not just on event weekends. Ryan Umbenhaur, who runs a financial advising office in the Village, told the Union-Tribune that his clients "often consider parking availability when considering how and when they are going to visit my office."
The Fridays around it
The Village Farmers Market is a smaller weekly version of the same parking problem. It runs Fridays from 3 to 7 p.m., October through April, on La Mesa Blvd. between 4th Street and Palm Avenue. It's closed November 27, the day after Thanksgiving, and December 25. Lothian named the farmers market when she explained why even a few extra spaces would help. The market has the same timing quirk as the holiday event. Meter enforcement ends at 6 p.m., and the market keeps going until 7.
That makes the Friday before Holiday in the Village, December 11, a useful test run. Try the same arrival time, the same trolley stop or the same block of Allison Avenue, and see how it goes with fewer people around.
Whether you live a few blocks from La Mesa Boulevard or across town, changes like the Spring Street construction, the new apartment buildings and the higher meter rates can affect how buyers see a home near the Village. If you'd like to know what yours is worth with the Village as it is now, The Joseph Realty Team can walk you through it. Get Your Free Home Valuation, and we'll include what's changing within walking distance of La Mesa Blvd.
