A few months ago, the City Council asked transportation management director Lucy Dyke to develop ways to deal with the city’s growing parking problems.
Dyke and her staff came up with two schemes: (1) Allow employees of certain businesses to park in restricted residential preferential parking zones during weekdays. A limited test program was approved March 28. (2) Expand the edges of existing zones to allow persons residing on nearby streets without restrictions to park on adjacent streets with parking restrictions.
At the Feb. 28 City Council meeting, Dyke recommended allowing persons, only in the mid Wilshire/Montana area, residing in dwelling units within 200 feet of restricted zones, to purchase permits and park in adjacent preferential parking zones. After a brief discussion, the item was continued.
I had mentioned in my column (SMDP, March 6, page 4) that Councilman Bobby Shriver seemed totally unprepared on the parking issue. After reading that criticism, Shriver e-mailed me and suggested, “Let’s drive around. Show me.”
We met on the corner of Euclid Street and Montana Avenue a few weeks ago and walked the neighborhood. On Montana, I pointed out where zoning codes mandate that commercial buildings be built with inadequate parking, forcing employees and customers to park on residential streets. I mentioned a neighbor who was operating a business out of an apartment with six or eight employees who also were parking on residential streets.
As we walked, I told him how there were at least twice as many dwelling units on most of the neighborhood’s blocks as there were parking spaces and that two and three people — most with vehicles — live in those units. I explained how allowing residents of just two small residential properties outside the zone would add as many as thirty more vehicles to restricted blocks.
I said that even restricted parking spots are usually gone by 6 p.m. weeknights. After 7 p.m., the two-hour limit is dead so everybody can park on restricted streets until 11 a.m. the next day. We even discussed landlords who rent garages at $150 to $200 a month. Tenants park on the street while their garages are leased out to non-residents for storage.
I’m delighted and impressed that Shriver took the time and effort to see what many of us in the multi-family neighborhoods go through on a daily basis.
Dyke this past Tuesday presented another plan to extend preferential parking zones — this time by 150 feet. “There are spaces not being used (on restricted streets),” Dyke told the City Council. What? Maybe during the day, but in the evening and on weekends, that’s just not true. Nevertheless, this time most of the City Council got it. The motion to approve died for lack of a second.
I hate to think of the thousands of hours of staff time and costs, as well as the dozens of hours spent by council members in deliberating these flawed schemes. Councilman Ken Genser summed it up best when he said, “There’s no need for it. This will do more harm than good.”
Hats off to Joel Brand for sounding the alarm and gathering the support of hundreds of Santa Monicans for the April 5 Planning Commission meeting when commissioners approved renovation of the 5.5-acre Marion Davies estate on Santa Monica Beach. City Hall plans to convert the ruin into a first-class public beach club using $28 million in funding from the Annenberg Foundation.
But hold on. There’s opposition from wealthy neighbors living near the project. They’ve threatened to file a lawsuit if City Hall does not sign a contract limiting development and activities at the new facility, as well as their approval of any proposed changes. Any litigation could impact funding, especially if it drags out.
City Hall had made concessions on the size of meeting rooms, reduced the kitchen facilities to limit food service and agreed to early evening closing times for events at the club. City Hall also agreed to extensive security measures to keep undesirables away.
So, If suits are filed, City Hall should take all concessions off the table and fight any legal action, vigorously. City Hall is obligated to give the people what they want and need — a fully functional facility without neighbor veto power. (Bill Bauer is a long-time resident of Santa Monica and a freelance writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 17, 2006. Read the original PDF.