City Council restricts Cornell Drive parking

Deirdre Newman

Jude Sturman is fed up with cars parking in front of the fire hydrant

on Cornell Drive.

Tom Phelan, another Cornell Drive resident, is tired of coming

home at 2 a.m. finding people parked in front of his driveway, and

John Cardos has seen people change their oil in front of his house.

These three and other residents of Cornell Drive brought their

complaints to the City Council on Monday. After hearing all of their

concerns, council members voted unanimously to place a resident-only

parking restriction on Cornell Drive between Wilson and Joann

streets.

“We’re thankful because now we don’t have to put trash cans in

front of our houses to protect our parking spots,” resident Tanya

Crabbe said.

The council also asked staff members to find out what kind of

restrictions it can make on multifamily units such as mobile home

parks and apartments. Cornell Drive residents mainly blamed residents

of the Costa Mesa Mobile Estates on Wilson Street for causing the

parking problem.

Other residential areas of the city have been plagued by a rash of

nonresident parking in the past year as well.

“There must be something fundamentally at issue with our parking

regulations that we have so many issues,” Councilwoman Libby Cowan

said.

Fourteen homeowners in the 2200 block of Cornell Drive petitioned

the city to add the resident-only restriction. Their primary concern

was safety, Crabbe said.

“We have children, and they couldn’t even play on the street with

all the cars going up and down,” Crabbe said.

Transportation Services Division staff members conducted license

plate surveys, which found that during the most congested period --

Friday nights at 8:45 p.m. -- nonresident vehicles took up about 52%

of the available parking spaces.

Staff members also found that there has been an extreme shortage

of parking for the mobile home park’s residents for at least 15

years. The layout of the park doesn’t allow for any additional

spaces.

“In the past 15 years, the situation has been horrific,” Cornell

Drive resident Don Bendz said. “[Nonresidents] have the system beat.

If we move our vehicles just to go around the corner, that spot will

be taken.”

Council members sympathized with residents and agreed that

resident-only restrictions would help alleviate the problem.

“I fully appreciate your concerns,” Councilman Allan Mansoor said.

“I have seen a lot of the same ones in my neighborhood.”

The new restriction means that signs will be posted limited

parking to cars displaying a valid permit. Letters will go out today

to residents letting them know that permits are available at City

Hall, and signs will be posted the week of Feb. 2, said Armando

Rutledge, assistant engineer.

Transportation Services staff members will meet with Development

Services staff members to examine what other restrictions might be

placed on parking for multifamily units, Rutledge added.

Assistant Development Services Director Perry Valantine said the

city has significantly upped its parking requirements over the last

30 years.

“Over the years, we have increased our multifamily unit parking

requirements as a result of concerns about excess on-street parking,

largely because of concerns on the Eastside,” Valantine said. “Most

of that is older developments that were built under earlier

standards.”

If city leaders decide that present parking requirements aren’t

enough, they could be increased, but only for future development,

Valantine said.

Other residential areas have also looked to city leaders for

relief from their parking woes.

In February 2003, fed-up residents in the areas around Elm

Avenue-Lemon Street and Tanager Drive near Tanager Park convinced the

council to place resident-only restrictions in their neighborhoods.

Residents on Manistee Drive didn’t fare so well. They complained

to city leaders about the parking problem on their street getting

worse, casting some of the blame on the Park Mesa Village apartment

complex. The council then approved a request from Park Mesa Village

owners to reduce the complex’s parking by 10 spaces.