Newport hikes parking rates

Lolita Harper

NEWPORT BEACH -- Gas prices are not the only thing that will increase

the cost of summer fun, since the Newport Beach City Council raised

its beach parking rates for the first time in a decade.

Newport Beach officials approved fees of an $8 maximum rate for

automobiles at Balboa and a $10 maximum at Corona del Mar by a vote

of 6 to 1, with Councilman Dick Nichols dissenting.

Nichols argued that rates should be dropped at Corona del Mar, at

least on the weekdays, to encourage beach-goers to use the designated

parking and keep them off the residential streets.

“If they are encouraged to go down there, they are controlled,

they are where they are supposed to be, and they won’t be bothering

the neighbors,” Nichols said.

Tom Rossmiller, the city’s harbor resources manager, said the

increase was warranted because of the expected increase in vehicle

traffic this summer caused by hiked parking rates at surrounding

beaches.

Effective July 1, most area beaches will raise their rates due to

budget constraints. This will be particularly true at state beaches

because of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s large cuts to California

state parks across the board.

Huntington Beach’s city beach will charge $9 on weekdays and $12

on weekends. Bolsa Chica and Huntington state beaches will cost $12

and Crystal Cove State Park will be $10, according to a staff report.

Councilman Don Webb suggested that the proposed increase was not

high enough.

“We are so far below their rates,” Webb said. “I think that we are

missing a substantive amount of revenue.”

Summer rates at Corona del Mar and Balboa beaches have been $7 and

$6, respectively, since 1992, according to a staff report. In 2002-03

both beaches combined for 326,573 vehicles and nearly $1.5 million in

parking fee revenue, the report stated.