No Driver’s License? No Parking Space

Like many undocumented immigrants in California, Jesus Nava drives without a license.

And while the debate over whether illegal immigrants should be able to obtain driver’s licenses continues in Sacramento, the Anaheim man has a more immediate concern: parking without a license.

Nava’s apartment complex, Hermosa Village, has begun requiring tenants to show vehicle registration, proof of insurance and a driver’s license for a parking permit.

Because many of the complex’s residents are illegal immigrants and can’t get a license or insurance, they have effectively been barred from parking inside the complex, tenants and city officials say.

“I drive around and around the block [looking for street parking],” said Nava, 36, who moved to Hermosa Village six months ago. “There is plenty of parking inside, but I can’t use it.”

Hermosa Village’s parking situation highlights a more mundane aspect of the national debate over driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. Opponents of the idea say it would put out the welcome mat for others to come illegally. Proponents say denying licenses to undocumented immigrants is discrimination.

At Hermosa Village, the issue boils down to the daily routines of a bustling apartment complex.

“Whether they are legal or illegal, the fact is: These families live and work here,” said Councilman Richard Chavez, who has been approached by Hermosa Village tenants unhappy with the parking regulations. “They have children they need to take places. They need to have a place to park their cars.”

City officials say parking in the densely populated neighborhood has always been a challenge.

Related Management, the company that oversees Hermosa Village, said it implemented the parking permits for safety reasons. Requiring driver’s licenses and proof of insurance for parking spaces is not uncommon for apartment managers seeking to limit their liability, according to the California Assn. of Apartments, a trade group.

If somebody doesn’t have a driver’s license “for whatever reason, whether they had it revoked because of a DUI or speeding, it would be a bad enough reason for not allowing them to drive on the site,” said Tim Gamache, a Related Management official. “It is very much about health and safety for our residents.”

The rule was not aimed at illegal immigrants, he said. The move, Gamache said, is part of a larger, seven-year effort to remake what was once one of Orange County’s most troubled neighborhoods.

Hermosa Village was formerly known as the Jeffrey-Lynne neighborhood, a low-income community that was notorious for overcrowding, graffiti, gangs and drugs.

In 1998, Anaheim partnered with private developers to rebuild the neighborhood, bordered by Cerritos Avenue, 9th Street, Calle de Las Estrellas and Walnut Street.

The city built a 11,000-square-foot community center and paved the way for developers to remodel the apartments into rent-controlled units.

As part of the revitalization, streets leading into Hermosa Village were gated this year, turning the entire neighborhood into a private complex.

Before, tenants could get city permits to park on what were public streets, and the previous property manager required only vehicle registration or proof of title from those who wanted to park in designated stalls.

With the gates up and the streets now private, Related Management, which took over in November, said it needed a better way to control parking and traffic. It has issued gate openers and permits for about 900 of the 1,130 parking spaces in the complex.

It’s impossible to say how many tenants don’t qualify for a permit because they can’t get a driver’s license or insurance, but Gamache acknowledged that some of the parking spaces have probably gone unclaimed by residents who are undocumented.

Chavez said it’s unreasonable to enforce the driver’s license requirement when “it is pretty clear many of the people who live there are undocumented.”

To create more parking outside the complex, the city has increased street permit parking and is negotiating with Southern California Edison to lease land under power lines just south of Hermosa Village.