Beach dwellers propose parking permits

Fed up with empty beer bottles, trash in their yards and out-of-town cars parked all weekend long, some Newport Beach residents are asking city officials to limit street parking near the beach to residents only.

Whether they get what they want may hinge on the outcome of November’s City Council election — but it could also be decided by the California Coastal Commission.

Residents in three areas are talking with the city about permit parking. In Corona del Mar and Peninsula Point, where hundreds of visitors flock every summer, people complain about littering and noise from beachgoers who ignore the beach’s 10 p.m. curfew.

“Primarily the issue that bothers us the most is the late-night issues when the beaches are supposed to be closed and we wind up with people coming in,” said Ken Drellishak, who is on the board of the Balboa Peninsula Point Assn.

“Those are the people that tend to leave six-pack beer bottles, condoms, that kind of stuff right in front of your house…. [At] 2 and 3 in the morning you can hear car alarms going off, people shouting and laughing.”

On Balboa Island the complaint is pleasure-seekers heading to Catalina who leave their cars on the island all weekend.

On “Catalina, we’ve been told that they advise people to park here and then take the ferry over because it’s cheaper than parking in the parking structure,” Opal Avenue resident Larry Kallestad said. “They get out with their little suitcases and you say, ‘Oh, there’s a Catalina parker.’ ”

To solve the problems, residents are suggesting overnight parking restrictions. In Corona del Mar and Peninsula Point that would likely be when beaches are closed, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

But getting parking restrictions approved won’t be a simple matter.

City officials have questions they want answered before they proceed.

For one thing, where do you restrict parking, and where does it stop, wondered City Councilman Ed Selich, whose district includes Balboa Island.

“If you do it on two streets, what if the guy the next street over wants it?” he said. “I think that’s the problem with parking permits anywhere — it keeps spreading.”

City Councilman Tod Ridgeway, who will be termed out of his council seat in December, said a Newport Beach Police Department study of calls to Peninsula Point didn’t show a major problem with late-night carousing. In Corona del Mar, he said, the solution is more police enforcement — something the city has been working on for five years.

But the biggest question for Ridgeway is whether the Coastal Commission, which has some authority over Newport’s coast, would agree to parking restrictions. Worse, it might call into question the city’s beach curfew.

“That curfew was never approved by the Coastal Commission, and I keep saying to these people if you push this, I don’t even know if we can get this curfew confirmed,” Ridgeway said.

Plenty of beach communities would like to restrict beach hours and parking, but those rules often go against the commission’s goal of broadening public access to the coast, Costal Commission spokeswoman Sarah Christie said.

“Historically the Coastal Commission has frowned upon such proposals,” she said. “We’ve got this sort of conflict between the beach is a public resource and who’s to say people can’t or shouldn’t enjoy the beach experience at night.”

If the city approved parking restrictions, the decision could be appealed to the commission, Christie said.

Selich said if the residents end up wanting restricted parking, he’ll support it, but Ridgeway isn’t convinced. However, he’ll be off the council later this year and someone else will get to tackle the issue.

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