HUNTINGTON BEACH : Officials Against New Parking Meters

City officials changed their minds Thursday and decided to oppose installing 850 parking meters in front of homes near the beach after encountering overwhelming opposition from angry residents.

The issue is scheduled to go before the City Council for a vote on Oct. 25. But a committee of key city employees changed its position and is now recommending against the parking meters.

At a town hall meeting Wednesday, speaker after speaker in a crowd of more than 200 people lambasted the plan, calling it a money-making scheme by the city that amounts to another tax for residents.

Some critics said the meters would bring visual pollution to their neighborhoods.

Donald Chisholm, an official with the North Orange County Surfriders Foundation, said the proposal to put meters in the coastal zone would be costly and restrictive for some beach-goers and “unfriendly to surfers.”

Councilmen David Sullivan and Ralph Bauer, who attended Wednesday night’s town meeting, said they opposed the parking meter proposal.

Sullivan, who had called for the forum to get residents’ views, predicted that his council colleagues would vote against the plan after reviewing tapes of the meeting and receiving petitions signed by about 2,000 downtown people.

Under the proposal, parking meters would be installed for one block inland from Pacific Coast Highway to Walnut Avenue, from 5th to Golden West streets. Meter rates of 75 cents an hour were proposed.

Residents could purchase a parking permit for $5 a year per vehicle that would exempt them from the meters.

Last month, when he first outlined the plan, Community Services Director Ron Hagan said the parking meters were proposed to discourage beach-goers from overwhelming residential streets and causing other problems.

On Thursday, Hagan said it is clear that people making complaints about beach-goers’ conduct fail to represent the majority of residents downtown. He said problems could be remedied by enforcement of current codes and ordinances.