Council approves parking reduction

Deirdre Newman

City leaders Monday approved a request from the owners of a Mesa

North apartment complex to reduce its parking by 10 spaces.

The decision by the City Council overturns the Planning

Commission’s earlier rejection of the request by Park Mesa Village.

The majority of council members said they felt that reducing the

parking at the Paularino Avenue complex would not add to parking

problems that a handful of homeowners who live across the street on

Manistee Drive say they have experienced.

The residents’ testimony swayed the Planning Commission to reject

the reduction in parking. But they didn’t show up to plead their case

to the council because they thought the Planning Commission had

approved the reduction and that was it, said Manistee Drive resident

Charles Ives.

Upon hearing of the council’s decision Tuesday, Ives and his wife,

Deborah, said they would consider asking for a rehearing. They

contend the parking problem on their street is getting worse, and

Park Mesa Village deserves some of the blame.

The problem, Deborah Ives said will be compounded by the council’s

decision: If you take 10 spaces away when there are already 20 people

who don’t have a place to park, add in an apartment complex across

the street and the houses’ short driveways, the cumulative effect is

a deluge of people parking on Manistee Drive.

Representatives of Cameo Homes, which owns Park Mesa, had asked to

replace 80 existing parking spaces -- 60 open and 20 covered carport

spaces -- with 70 single-garage spaces in seven buildings. They want

to convert the parking to make their property more attractive by

using the garages to buffer nearby freeway noise. There are no

freeway noise walls in this location.

They received an approval for a similar request in 1992, but the

garages were never built because of the recession, said Victor

Mahoney, with Cameo Homes.

To prove that the reduction would not adversely harm the

neighborhood, Cameo conducted a study that found there is excess

parking available in the complex.

But in September, the Planning Commission heeded the concerns of

the Manistee Drive residents and denied the reduction.

In response to that decision, Cameo officials have worked with the

Manistee Drive residents and have only received one complaint about

off-site parking, Mahoney said.

While none of the Manistee Drive residents showed up Monday, two

other residents voiced their dissatisfaction with reducing the

parking at the complex.

“I have a real problem reducing parking anywhere because the

biggest problems [in the city] are parking, traffic and gridlock,”

said Beth Refakes.

But their opinions did not have the same weight as the Manistee

Drive residents had with the Planing Commission and the council voted

4-1 to approve the reduction, following the lead of Mayor Gary

Monahan.

“The comments about problems in the city [with parking] are right

on, but I don’t see how a reduction in spots will exacerbate that,”

Monahan said. “Parking [on Manistee Drive] appears to be driven from

elsewhere or the convenience [of those] who walk through the site.”

Councilman Allan Mansoor dissented because he said he believes the

reduction will increase the parking problems on Manistee Drive.