Downtown Sonora's Stewart Street Lots Are Being Rebuilt Right Into Parade Season. Here's How the Holidays Still Work.

October 19 was the scheduled start for crews from Taylor Backhoe Service to begin tearing out the sidewalk in front of the Barrons furniture building at the Lyons and Stewart Street parking lot. That lot is one of two city-owned lots on Stewart Street that the City of Sonora is rebuilding this fall. The City's bid documents give the job 40 working days. A later addendum says the project "should be completed this Fall (2026)." If those working days ran back to back on weekdays from the start date, they would last into mid-December. That window covers the Christmas Parade, both holiday Art Nights and most of the downtown shopping season.

Here's what the City's own construction specifications show. The contract protects the streets around the project and gives the parking spaces much weaker protection. So it's worth planning a holiday trip downtown around the streets, the shuttle and the clock, since you can't count on a particular parking space being open.

Two lots, 63 spaces, two different jobs

Both lots sit along Stewart Street, a block off Washington Street. They are getting very different amounts of work. The City's invitation to bid lists the scope for each:

The bid notice puts the "Stewart and Church" label on both lots. The City's January 2026 presentation sorts them out. It describes the Church/Stewart lot as 12 public stalls plus four for the Stewart House development, and the Lyons/Stewart lot as 52 current and 50 proposed public stalls. Those final counts shifted between the presentation and the bid, but the larger lot is the one at Lyons.

The bigger lot gets the lighter treatment, and most of the downtown parking is in that bigger lot. That's good news for the holidays. The heaviest rebuilding happens at the 15-stall Church Street lot, and the 48-stall Lyons lot mostly needs a resurfacing.

The Sonora City Council voted unanimously to award Taylor Backhoe Service the construction contract on its low bid of $703,221.71. The council also approved $105,000 for the solar street lighting option and $149,344.76 for Dewberry Engineers to handle construction management and inspection. According to myMotherLode, the work is paid for with Measure Y sales tax revenue.

The order of work decides which weeks are tight

The first phase is the sidewalk in front of the Barrons building. It was expected to take about two weeks, and the Lyons/Stewart lot was to stay mostly open in the meantime. That puts the end of phase one right around the first days of November. After that, crews grind out the old asphalt and repave the lot. myMotherLode reported that the exact timing of that phase depends on the weather.

That one condition sets the schedule for the rest of the season. Paving needs dry weather, and November in the foothills doesn't always cooperate. A rainy stretch pushes repaving later, which brings it closer to the parade and the December Art Night. No source gives a start date for the Church/Stewart lot. Neither lot has a firm finish date beyond the City's "this Fall" target.

What the contract guarantees, and what it only asks for

The City's special provisions for the job are its rulebook. One passage spells out how the City treats roads and parking spaces when work stops for the day:

When practical, the full width of the roadway and parking lots must be open to pedestrian and vehicular traffic outside of working hours. When not practical, the Contractor must make every effort to open the maximum number of lanes and parking spaces possible. The full width of the roadway must be open for all planned City of Sonora Events and holidays.

The roadway gets a firm requirement for City events and holidays. The parking lots get "when practical" and "every effort." Another section says the contractor should open all or part of the lots, roadways and sidewalks during non-working hours "whenever feasible." It also requires the contractor to submit sequencing, closure and pedestrian circulation plans to the City for approval before work starts. Pedestrian access, local traffic and ADA paths to homes and businesses have to stay open at all times unless the City approves otherwise in writing.

So on a holiday evening, Stewart, Bradford and Church streets should be fully open and the sidewalks walkable. A freshly ground lot might still be fenced off. If it is, you'll be parking somewhere else and walking a little farther.

Parade night runs on its own clock

The 43rd Annual Sonora City Christmas Parade is Friday, November 27, the day after Thanksgiving. It starts at 6 p.m. on Washington Street, rain or shine, and the Sonora Chamber of Commerce produces it. Parade night already has the best workaround for a short-handed downtown parking supply. Here's how the afternoon goes:

1. 2 p.m. No through traffic on School Street, which becomes the staging area between Snell and Washington streets.
2. 3 p.m. Only parade vehicles are allowed on School Street. Snell Street closes from North Green Street to Bonanza Road.
3. 3 p.m. onward Tuolumne County Transit runs free rides from the Junction Shopping Center to downtown every 15 to 20 minutes until the parade ends.
4. 6 p.m. The parade steps off.

The shuttle starts three hours before the parade, so you can park at the Junction in the afternoon, ride in, eat on Washington Street and claim a curb spot without circling for a space. It's also the one way downtown that doesn't depend on whether the Lyons lot has been repaved yet. The Visit Tuolumne event listing has the shuttle details. The Chamber's parade entry page lists the staging rules. Groups that want to march have until 5 p.m. Friday, November 13, to apply. Entries cost $25 and cover up to 10 vehicles.

Some closure instructions still online are from last year's parade. For 2026, go by the Chamber's current page and any advisory the City or police publish closer to the date.

The rest of the season, sorted by what is confirmed

Most of the downtown holiday season falls between the parade and the likely end of construction. Some 2026 dates are posted. Others are known only from last year. As of late October, the Christmas Town Sonora calendar for November and December 2026 had no events listed yet.

There's no shuttle for any of these. The Chamber's Holiday Community Mixer is free and open to everyone, member or not. It's at the Opera Hall, close to the Church/Stewart work, on a December weeknight near the end of the 40-working-day window. The two Art Nights fall on Saturdays, which are usually outside working hours, so the "open when feasible" rule should apply. If you're going early in the season, the November 14 Art Night comes after the sidewalk phase was expected to wrap up and possibly before any repaving starts.

Why these two lots, and why now

The lots aren't being rebuilt only for the holidays. In January, myMotherLode reported that the council took up plans for the Church/Stewart and Lyons/Stewart lots alongside a proposed "Sonora Moves Downtown Plaza and Regional Connectivity Project." City documents quoted in that report describe a continuous, ADA-compliant walking and biking route from the public lots at Stewart and Bradford to the new transit hub and the planned Gold Rush Path at South Green Street and Highway 49, built along Stewart, Linoberg and Green streets. That project was estimated at $4 million, and the City planned to seek grant money for it.

The ADA crossings, new Bradford Street sidewalk and handrailing in this fall's contract make the Stewart Street lots the starting point for that route. If the grant comes through, these lots become the place you park before walking to the transit hub and the Gold Rush Path. This winter, they're the place you're asked to park around for a few weeks.

Questions about downtown Sonora this season, from where to park for the parade to how a construction schedule like this one affects a property near Washington Street? Leeann Lupo Properties follows what's happening on these blocks year-round. Talk with Leeann, your hometown specialist, and we'll walk you through it.