Preferential, but ideal? Permit parking has spread, but not everyone is happy
OCEAN PARK It was only two months ago when a simple trip to the grocery store would always take an extra 15 minutes for Elan Glasser, a time spent on an unwanted neighborhood tour, repeatedly traveling up and down the streets, all for a parking space within reasonable distance of his home.
The problem in Glasser’s neck of the woods was attributed to the driving-age population at adjacent Santa Monica High School, students utilizing the free street spaces in the neighborhood, causing residents to bemoan the inability to park in front of their homes.
“During the week it was just next to impossible to find parking near my house,” Glasser, a filmmaker, said. “When guests came (during the day), they would have to park two blocks away.”
The issue was resolved in mid-April when City Hall began installing preferential parking signs on residential streets off the southside of the high school, restricting the area to only allow residents with permits.
“Before, it was good luck to find parking on Monday at 10 a.m.,” Glasser said. “Now, it’s possible to find parking.”
While the problem has been solved for residents, high school students say they’re now struggling finding a way to get to school, the campus parking lot limited to a few spaces allocated to seniors on a lottery system. Several parents have asked City Hall to work out an arrangement to allow students to park at the Civic Center garage for a lower fee.
Preferential parking has often been used as a cure for residential parking woes in Santa Monica, the 8.3 square-mile city home to approximately 46 such zones, the majority of which is concentrated south of Washington Avenue.
The most recent zone to join the list was established last month, covering the eastern edge of the city, including parts of Stanford, Berkeley,Franklin streets and Arizona Avenue.
The establishment of a zone is prompted by a petition, which must include a consenting vote from two-thirds of residents in the proposed boundaries before it’s submitted to City Hall. Once the feasibility of the zone is analyzed, a proposal is presented to the City Council for approval.
Some zones include blocks where preferential parking has not been instituted because a petition has not been submitted. If City Hall receives a petition from one of these blocks, the parking signs can be installed without council approval, according to Ruth Harper, a transportation plan-ning associate.
Permits cost $15 a year for residents, who also can receive up to two permitted guests permits for an additional $15.
Residents have for the most part been satisfied with the results of preferential parking, though some have expressed a desire for more enforcement, Harper said.
But the concept isn’t without its detractors, opponents saying that preferential areas just push the parking squeeze to a non-zone block.
Among the opponents is Mayor Herb Katz who has voted against preferential parking zones for the majority of his time on the council, making allowances for zones near Santa Monica College and the neighborhoods with the two major area hospitals.
Katz recalled when a preferential parking proposal for the blocks near the college first came before the council, a time when he served on the dais with former Councilmember Christine Reed.
“She said,‘why not save a lot of time and preferential park the entire city?” Katz said about his former colleague. “She was right.”
Katz argued that preferential parking displaces other residents and just pushes the problem down to the next block.
“We are not addressing it if we are expanding it,” Katz said. Jeanne Dodson, who lives in the Wilshire-Montana neighborhood, has seen the phenomenon occur on her own block, which is adjacent to a preferential parking zone.
“It’s not just an argument, it’s a reality,” she said. Parking is considered to be the number one issue in the Wilshire-Montana neighborhood, the densest part of the city where residents often are at odds with each other over available street spaces.
Dodson said preferential parking would work in areas where the problem is between residents and visitors, which is not the case in WilMont.
A survey by the Wilshire-Montana Neighborhood Coalition found that the number of dwelling units far outnumber the available street parking spaces, a problem that has been attributed to the number of residents who use their garages for storage, not parking.
The organization is trying to work out a solution where residents will be allowed to park in empty commercial lots along Wilshire Boulevard, the spots underutilized before and after business hours. Dodson, who chairs the organization, expressed disappointment that the parking solutions were not included in the proposed city budget.
“Preferential parking is not the one and only answer and we have to step back and find a better solution,” she said.
Rosemary Sostarich, who lives on Ocean Avenue north of Wilshire Boulevard, said preferential parking has helped the residents on her block, benefiting from a zone established recently on the side streets. Preferential parking is not permitted on Ocean Avenue, the areas near the beach restricted by the California Coastal Commission.
“It has helped us because of the influx of people in the summer,” Sostarich said. “It’s not an ideal solution but it does help.”
Councilmember Ken Genser, one of the main supporters of preferential parking, said while the solution is less than perfect, it’s the best available for now.
He pointed out that there are numerous ways to institute preferential parking, catering it to the neighborhood in which it will exist, some restrictions near businesses limiting visitors to two hours a day, others banishing them outright.
“It’s important to make sure we adjust the specific rules for each district to best balance the competing needs while making sure we protect basic residents’ rights,” Genser said.
Tanie Sims has owned the Clayhouse, a membership-driven ceramic gallery at the 2900 block of Santa Monica Boulevard, since 1995, the business a part of the community since the early 1970s.
The business shared roughly eight meter parking spaces with several other galleries and stores on the small block, the spots mainly occupied by customers until preferential parking signs went up on Yale Street just a few weeks ago.
“Because of preferential parking on Yale, the (employees in) medical office building to the right and left of us and the restaurant across the street all park in those meters,” Sims said. “My members have already complained and gotten tickets, driving around and around finding parking places.”
Sims said she feared the Clayhouse wouldn’t be able to sustain business with the preferential parking on Yale Street, the situation possibly aggrandized by the restrictions recently approved for Stanford, Berkeley and Franklin streets.
“It’s kind of crazy,” she said. “It feels we’re being encroached on.”
But residents who live on the college-named streets argue that parking is intolerable on their blocks, unable to find spaces near their homes. Many pointed fingers at the patrons of bars in the area taking spaces.
“We definitely need permit parking where we live,” Sharon Gorman said at the council meeting last month. “I have holiday dinners and there’s no place to park (for the guests).”
While parking zones can pit residents against businesses, some compromises have been successfully made in other parts of the city, including in the Pico Neighborhood.
A parking program adopted in 2006 allows employees of Pico Boulevard to park on residential blocks along 10th Street that are otherwise restricted. The program underwent a pilot phase in 2006 and was extended permanently last year.
City Hall has issued approximately 22 permits for the Pico businesses, each permit costing $30 for a three-month period, according to Lucy Dyke, the transportation planning manager.
“It works well because people are willing to share spaces on their street and the merchants want a place to park and are willing to follow the rules in order to keep their permits.”
Bob Kronovet, the chairman of the Pico Improvement Organization, agreed the program has worked well for the merchants.
“I am very concerned about the residents, I want them to be happy,”Kronovet said.“At the same time healthy merchants and successful businesses on Pico is probably the greatest asset for increased property value and safety for residents.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 7, 2008. Read the original PDF.