Reasonable parking fix

Much has been made of the fact that the City Council agreed March 15

to modify a conditional-use permit for off-site employee parking for

the Montage Resort & Spa, giving the resort an unlimited period of

time for the permit.

The fact that the resort’s representatives asked for the

modifications Feb. 15, a mere two weeks after agreeing to the

original conditions -- including an unprecedented, irrevocable

two-year time limit -- has raised hackles as well as eyebrows.

The resort has been accused by at least one on the council of

“taking a second bite at the apple” -- the apple being, of course,

the lovely ocean view neighborhood in which the Montage is located.

Neighbors want the hotel to provide parking on hotel property and

require employees to park there -- not on neighborhood streets.

Mayor Pro Tem Steven Dicterow, who crafted the original two-year

permit and then reversed his stance a few weeks later, taking the

lead on revisions, has been the object of much vitriol from some who

feel betrayed.

Dicterow admitted at the council meeting that he “didn’t do a

perfect job” on the original permit and needed a second chance to get

it right.

A close look at the conditions and the city’s policies on

conditional-use permits shows that the original permit was, simply,

defective.

The city’s zoning code places a two-year expiration on these

permits for projects that are not built; this allows the permit to

lapse if the project does not come to fruition.

But the Montage is up and running, its employees are very much in

need of parking, and hotel operators want to get as many employees’

cars out of neighborhood streets as possible.

The original permit included a provision that Montage operators

point out is probably illegal under fair labor laws: a requirement

that employees park only in spaces provided by the Montage “as a

condition of employment.”

The revised permit states that employees “shall not park” on

public streets or local public parking lots, and may only park “in

those spaces under the control of the Resort.”

Furthermore, employees are to be so admonished in English and

Spanish upon hiring, and the parking policy -- called a “restriction”

-- will be posted at all employee time clocks.

Surely the employees will get the message.

The revised permit also requires Montage to landscape the parking

lot, conduct a parking study over the next two years to determine if

further refinements are needed and to “work in good faith” with the

city on parking issues in South Laguna.

We think Dicterow -- as well as the council -- should be

commended, not raked over the coals, for changing their minds and

making a better decision.