WHAT: Treasure Island Park/Montage Resort parking WHAT’S...

WHAT:

Treasure Island Park/Montage Resort parking

WHAT’S BEHIND IT:

Monthly Progress Reports keep the City Council apprised of

glitches in the projects, actions by other agencies that pertain to

the project, changes requested by the developer in approved plans and

administrative approvals of proposals.

The reports on the agenda were begun after council members

realized the dramatic escalation in the cost of the public park

written in City Manager Ken Frank’s Friday Updates had slipped under

their radar. Monthly reports give council members time to challenge

any administrative approval and keep the public informed.

But nothing prepared the council for the deluge of complaints

about the parking problems after the hotel and Treasure Island Park

opened.

WHAT NOW:

Business owners in Aliso Creek Shopping Center owned by Albertsons

Market are fuming at the influx of cars parking illegally in the

center while the drivers and passengers go to the park, the beach or

to work at the resort.

Residents in adjoining neighborhoods, including Laguna Terrace

Mobile Home Park, are upset by the increase in parking on their

streets.

The hotel is blamed for the parking difficulties, and construction

workers and employees are said to contribute. If hotel visitors don’t

want to pay the $10 valet parking fee or feed the meters, it is hard

to say what the hotel can do. The streets are free, as is the parking

in the shopping center lot, if the vehicles don’t get towed.

The City Council on Tuesday extended for another 10 1/2 months the

moratorium on development of two parcels across the street from the

resort that the hotel had leased for employee parking, to the

disappointment of Ken Cummins, owner of the old Unocal site near

Ruby’s Diner.

The need for additional parking may be permanent, said one

planning commissioner, who questioned the adequacy of the resort

environmental report certified by the council. The report established

a parking requirement of 400 spaces for the hotel and 70 spaces down

near the park for the public.

The old Unocal site was in the process of redevelopment until the

council passed an urgency ordinance in March prohibiting approval of

entitlements.

WHAT’S SAID:

“It’s not fair to take my property to solve the problems of

Montage,” Cummings said.

WHAT’S NEXT:

The hotel has to complete striping the underground garage before

the city will sign off on the project. Meanwhile, Cummings can

proceed with the development application, he just can’t get it

approved. Resort management will be asked to report to the council

what it plans to do about the parking.

-- Barbara Diamond