Our Laguna: Parking management meeting yields suggestions

If you have a pet peeve about parking Downtown or in Laguna Canyon, and who doesn’t, city planners want to know about it. Better yet, contact them if you have ideas on how to make it better.

The city hired RBF Consulting to work with city planners and the public on a parking management plan and the first step is identifying the concerns of residents, business owners and visitors. A public workshop was held July 18 at the Third Street Community Center to kick off the project.

“This is not a new issue,” said consultant Susan Harden. “People in Laguna have been talking about parking for a long, long, time.”

“Parking is part of what makes a place attractive to business and visitors.”

Not to mention folks who live here.

Parking management doesn’t necessarily mean more parking spaces. It is a term used for strategies to make better use of existing parking. There is no simple solution to address all parking concerns, according to the consultants. The goal is to come up with solutions that will be accepted by the community, and that takes collaboration.

The city is in the process of equipping a “tool box” of options than can be implemented in the Downtown and Laguna Canyon Parking Management Area, which runs from Cliff Drive to Legion Street and from the ocean to Laguna College of Art & Design — the same area as the Downtown Specific Plan after it is extended to the college.

Folks at the July 18 workshop were given participant survey/feedback forms to complete. The first item was main concerns. The second was locations in the specified area where the participant would most like to see parking strategies considered and thirdly, a list of strategies, including other and none, from which participants could choose.

Design Review Board Task Force Chair Matt Lawson joked that a gate across Laguna Canyon Road would work.

“Do we really want to be more attractive to all those day-trippers?” Lawson asked. “They don’t spend money; in fact they cost the city money.”

Perhaps a neon sign: “Last parking until Dana Point” might make the point that parking in the Act V lot, Mission Hospital or Pavilions, which are terminals for trolleys and buses, beats circling clogged downtown streets looking for those elusive spaces and making it worse.

More seriously, Lawson suggested the city rent private parking spaces.

Among the strategies listed by the consultant:

*Shared parking — for instance spaces that are used by a business during the day that could be used by the public after hours.

*Increased capacity of existing spaces.

*Peripheral parking.

*Walking and bicycling improvements and bicycle facilities. Encouraging cyclists and walkers is a priority with Complete Streets proponents such as Michael Hoag and Mayor Jane Egly, both of whom attended the workshop.

*Higher or graduated fees. However, parking fees cannot be raised more than $2 without going to the California Coastal Commission, according to Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman.

Grossman will serve with Commissioner Linda Dietrich on the Planning Commission’s Parking Management Plan Subcommittee, which will conduct public hearings this fall.

*Better marketing and better technology were also mentioned.

Participants separated into groups to come up with their own proposals.

Laguna Beach Visitors and Meeting Bureau Board Chairwoman Karyn Philippsen listed suggestions by people sitting at her table:

*Citywide valet parking service

*Put sidewalks along Laguna Canyon Road to encourage pedestrians.

*Consider free parking except on weekends.

Architect Morris Skenderian, speaking for the participants at his table said technology to monitor parking spaces was the most interesting idea.

He also said the Village Entrance project is an important element to be considered. It could concentrate parking in a structure and act as a transportation hub.

His table dismissed bicycling as an impactful option.

“They have to go uphill and it’s dangerous after dark,” Skenderian said.

Developer and contractor Ken Fischbeck, who sat at the same table, favors a pedestrian bridge over Forest Avenue.

Forest Avenue jeweler David Rubel opined that smart technology and remote (peripheral) parking were the ways to go.

Cal State Pomona professor Rick Wilson, who is consulting on the plan and has written a book about parking, said he usually works with communities where some no-brainer remedies such as credit card meters and peripheral parking can reduce parking problems.

“You already have all those things,” Wilson said. “Your challenge is how to go forward.

“Poorly managed parking creates problems. Manage the spaces you have before adding spaces.”

He said one idea is changeable signs around downtown to direct drivers to available parking.

“I thought the consultants did an excellent job at the workshop,” Grossman said. “There was good public participation and some good ideas.”

Among the other participants: Festival of Arts President Fred Sattler, Visitors Bureau President and CEO Judy Bijlani, Police Department Civilian Supervisor Jim Beres and architect Marshall Ininns.

Anyone interested in getting involved in the Parking Management Plan can find information listed under “popular links” on the city website, https://www.lagunabeachcity.net. The link includes all the material from the workshop, reports, maps and other useful information.

The next step in the process will be meetings with individual stakeholders and anyone who is interested. The meetings will be conducted by the consultants and city Principal Planner Monica Tuchscher, project manager for the planning process.

“The consultants will put together a report assessing parking opportunities and constraints, policy analysis and options, before the subcommittee workshop, which will be held in the fall,” Tuchscher said.

Finally, a draft report will be presented to the Planning Commission for recommendations to the City Council.

The Parking Management Plan process was initiated in April 2012 and will be completed in approximately 11 months.

For more information e-mail MTuchscher@lagunabeachcity.net or call (949) 497-0745.

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Call (714) 966-4618 or email coastlinepilot@latimes.com with Attn. Barbara Diamond in the subject line.