Permit parking being studied

The long-simmering issue of whether to restrict nonresident parking in neighborhoods near business districts is heating up, as is the question of whether Laguna Beach should move ahead with its first year-round preferential-parking program.

Preferential parking limits street parking for the public, with residents allowed to purchase permits exempting them from the restrictions.

Currently, Laguna Beach has only one preferential parking area — a neighborhood off of Laguna Canyon Road next to the Sawdust Art Festival grounds in which public parking is off-limits to nonresidents during the summer festival season.

City officials have been pondering additional preferential-parking zones for several years to try to address complaints in commercial-adjacent neighborhoods about early morning and late-night noise and lack of street parking.

Subcommittee recommends ‘no’

The City Council-appointed Parking/Traffic/Circulation (PTC) committee will consider on Dec. 7 whether to adopt a proposed subcommittee recommendation against proceeding with a preferential-parking program for residents in the so-called Flatlands and Woods Cove areas.

The PTC committee was asked by the City Council to look into residents’ requests for permit parking in the areas, which abuts Laguna’s midtown “hotel row,” a growing area with many restaurants and nightspots, in addition to hotels, and more on the way.

The committee held a public hearing Aug. 21, and a three-member subcommittee has drafted a report rejecting preferential parking and calling for other measures to address residents’ complaints about employees and customers parking near their homes.

None of the subcommittee members lives in the affected area, but several of the PTC committee members who will vote on the final recommendations are Flatlanders or Woods Cove residents. None were able to comment on the issue because of their membership on the PTC committee.

‘Quality-of-life’ issue

Many of the neighbor complaints center on early-morning and late-night noise from patrons and employees, not on the use of parking spaces.

“The nighttime restaurant issue isn’t [the amount of] parking, it’s the quality of life,” said Barbara Slevcove, a member of the Woods Cove Neighborhood Assn. who is championing preferential parking.

“Employees are talking and revving their cars, and after 2 a.m., when the bars close, customers are peeing on our lawns.”

Slevcove says that’s why her neighbors want Laguna Beach resident-only parking from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

“At least give us nighttime peace and quiet,” she said. “I’m sick and tired of getting awakened at night. People have moved out due to the noise.

“It works in other beach cities, and there’s no reason we couldn’t do it here,” she said. “Our streets aren’t swept because there are cars here all the time.”

As more businesses open and existing businesses expand in the area, employees and patrons look farther for a place to park.

Slevcove says the neighbors have complained about local businesses using street parking for valet service, which is illegal under the municipal code, as well as tying up parking areas by using them for outdoor events.

City Manager Ken Frank reported to the City Council Subcommittee on Flatlands Neighborhood Parking in May that the Surf & Sand hotel had stopped the practice of using its courtyard for events and earmarked 14 valet parking stalls on-site, as well as allocating on-site parking spaces for 15-20 employees.

Dennis Myers, chairman of the PTC subcommittee, agrees with Slevcove that noise and foul behavior — not the number of neighborhood parking spots used — is the real issue.

But Myers opposes a preferential parking program and says it should be used only as a last resort if other measures fail.

“I can empathize with the homeowners; they have a legitimate complaint,” Myers said.

“They think if they kick everybody out, businesses will have to find a solution, but what will happen is it will push cars further up into the neighborhoods and there will be even more [problems].”

Survey shows opposition

Residents apparently differ on whether the problems are bad enough to warrant restricted parking.

A Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce survey in August indicated overwhelming opposition among businesses and residents to a preferential-parking program.

The chamber sent out 1,063 surveys and 289 were returned — including 189 residents and 60 businesses — a response rate of 28%, considered high.

In response to a question about whether they would support a “residential preferential-parking permit program,” 68% of residents and 88% of business owners said they opposed such a measure.

The chamber used the city’s list of homeowners in the 30-block area from Catalina Avenue to the ocean and from Thalia to Diamond streets who were noticed for the PTC Committee public hearing on the issue.

Slevcove and other neighborhood activists discount he chamber survey results.

Slevcove says the survey isn’t valid because it did not ask for an opinion about the specific hours of the parking program her group is proposing.

“I don’t believe the survey,” Slevcove said. “The chamber didn’t know what the residents’ requests were.”

Chamber as buffer

The chamber has been trying to stand between angry residents and businesses.

“This [preferential parking] is a very important issue for the businesses,” said Rose Hancock, the chamber’s executive director. Hancock worries about the effect of preferential parking on some of the city’s major businesses, such as the Surf & Sand Hotel.

“The Surf & Sand will be greatly affected, and they have the second-biggest [hotel-bed] tax in the city and the most employees in the area,” she said.

Hancock and chamber members believe that businesses can help make their employees and patrons less obnoxious for residents.

Chamber officials point to the success of Mozambique restaurant, which was the subject of complaints over nightly noise from its bar patrons and restaurant employees.

Mozambique posted signs asking patrons to be “quiet and respectful” as they walk to their cars, and its employees inform patrons of the “good neighbor” policy.

Since the program began, complaints in the area have plummeted, Hancock says.

“The signs at Mozambique work,” Hancock said. “They [Mozambique] identified excellent solutions.”

The chamber is now launching a voluntary sign program based on the Mozambique model.

The PTC committee will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, in Conference Room A at City Hall, 505 Forest Ave., to consider the recommendations.

QUESTION

Should a preferential-parking program be used in the midtown area of Laguna? Write us at P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, CA, 92652, e-mail us at coastlinepilot@latimes.com or fax us at (949) 494-8979. Please give your name and tell us your home address and phone number for verification purposes only.