It looks as if we are finally going to have preferential parking in our neighborhood. It’s about time, too — five years after we petitioned the city.
The area on both sides of the Montana Avenue shopping district is one of the last neighborhoods adjacent to a busy, commercial strip to finally receive preferential parking. Zone “G” was approved by the City Council on Tuesday night.
Preferential parking zones were originally established along the coastal area, near hospitals, around Santa Monica College, adjacent to Main Street, around downtown and near other high-traffic areas.
Locals felt streets were being commandeered by nonresidents — tourists, employees, students, shoppers and other interlopers. Preferential or permit zones restrict or completely prohibit nonresident parking.
Residential streets near Lincoln, Pico, Santa Monica Boulevard, Wilshire, Broadway, Montana and even 26th Street and San Vicente now have restricted parking. Two-thirds of the city’s streets have restrictions to facilitate resident parking.
Many Montana Avenue businesses don't have on-site parking and residents complain that shoppers and employees wrest scarce parking from residents.
Five blocks in the single family residential area north of Montana already have parking restrictions. None of the streets south of Montana are restricted.
However, neighbors on two Idaho Avenue blocks and 11th and 12th streets north of Montana submitted petitions requesting restrictions, thus triggering action.
The city's traffic management department studied the area from Idaho to Alta, Lincoln to 17th Street. It determined that residents were displaced by nonresidents — a situation that always results in restrictions to make it easier for residents to park near their homes.
Many of the city’s preferential zones require permits most of the time, such as the large Broadway/Santa Monica Boulevard neighborhood from Lincoln eastward, where permits are required 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. — 19 hours a day. In Sunset Park, permits are mandatory weekdays and weekday evenings over 40 square blocks.
However, when it came to parking mitigation for neighbors around the Montana Avenue commercial district, city staff apparently and inexplicably concluded that it was time to penalize residents for a change.
Staff recommended two-hour parking for one side of the street (permit holders excepted) and unrestricted parking on the other side — for the entire area — including the streets that already had more stringent restrictions in place.
In other words, one-half of a preferential zone.
Allowing single side, unrestricted parking allows those storing cars, long-term parkers and nonresidents to monopolize half the available parking.
Residents and shoppers are left to fight for the remaining two-hour side.
When it came time for the City Council to approve staff recommendations, it all was going down hard. Herb Katz thinks preferential parking “is wrong,” so he voted no.
Herb's been consistently against preferential zones and he's right. They're a pain in the behind. But with two-thirds of the city's streets already restricted, nobody wants to be shortchanged at this stage.
Councilwoman O'Connor couldn't figure out why one side of the street was bad for the neighborhood. She argued for business parking to stay on our streets because, if they don't park here, they'll park on someone else's street. She said the problem will expand as displaced nonresidents seek parking further out.
O'Connor lives on Ninth Street, just outside the zone.
Councilman McKeown joined the majority and voted “yes.” I'm thankful for his vote but he should have recused himself because he lives within the zone, on 16th Street. Keep in mind, restrictions only apply to blocks where submitted petitions have been approved — a fraction of the zone. However, as more petitions are submitted additional blocks will come on line.
The City Council's agonizing over one side, two sides, one hour, two hours, or even whether to approve anything illustrates how goofy this whole situation has become. And, if things weren't wacky enough, they ordered staff to develop guidelines for issuing a limited number of nonresident “employee permits” if they determine our neighborhood is under-parked.
Huge sections of the city are much more restrictive than our neighborhood. No one is suggesting issuing employee permits for these areas. Nobody is promoting employee parking in the many zones where “permit only” restrictions have left streets virtually empty, most of the time.
The city's parking policy is beyond goofy, it’s down right schizophrenic. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 27, 2003. Read the original PDF.