Spaces open up downtown

Parking lot spaces soon will be more plentiful downtown, and the goal is to get drivers to use them instead of city streets.

The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to revisions in the configuration of the Lumberyard and city employees lots and reductions in the number of street parking spaces allowed for business permit- and Ocean Avenue residential permit-holders. Fees also were revised “” some higher, some lower.

“I think what we are doing is fair,” Kelly Boyd said.

He supported all the recommendations made by City Manager Ken Frank after the council voted to allow one residential parking permit per family living in the moderate-rental cottages on Ocean Avenue. Frank had proposed eliminating all of the permits for street parking and replacing them with parking in the lots, which was opposed by the tenants and their landlady.

The testimony of 13-year-old Elias Cerdas was particularly telling.

“I am the oldest son in my family,” the Thurston Middle School student said. “One of the things I do as the oldest son is help my mom and one of the things I do for her is help take things in and out of the car. If you take away our [street] parking spaces, it will make it impossible for me to get things for her.”

His mother had previously testified that she feared for her children’s safety if they had to cross Forest Avenue because vehicles frequently do not stop for pedestrians in the crosswalks in front of City Hall and especially at the corner of Forest Avenue and Broadway, the access points from Ocean to the parking lots.

“We would have to move if it was dangerous, and I don’t want to move,” the boy said.

Property owner Carol Kezar said if the permits were eliminated she would probably never be able to rent to families with children.

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Fees up, parking down

The fee for business parking permits was increased and the number of designated street spaces was decreased, as an incentive to get the permit holders to use the parking lots.

“It is clear that business owners and employees park in front of their businesses and come out every three hours and move their cars,” Frank said.

Sometimes they don’t even bother to play musical spaces, according to Frank.

“I am going to ask the police chief to triple enforcement,” Frank said. “They can either pay $10 a month or be cited for feeding the meters.”

Business permit holders will have the option of parking in the soon-to-be-available spaces in the Laguna Canyon lot in the area farthest from downtown for 9 ½ months of the year and at ACT V lot for the other 2 ½ months when Festival Shuttles are in daily operation at an annual cost of $120, Boyd said.

Spaces in the Lumberyard lot adjacent to City Hall will cost $55 a month. Spaces across from the Festival of Arts Grounds will cost $10 a day during Festival Season. Parking meters would be installed for the remainder of the year, with rates of $3 a day or $10 a month in the off season, which Boyd and Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman said was too cheap, but did not take any action.

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Results

In all, 164 new spaces will be available to the public when repaving and restriping is completed at the Lumberyard and former City Employees lots and the area previously occupied by the city maintenance yard. City employees will park within a fenced area of the old yard.

Approved unanimously:

?Combine the operation of the Lumberyard lot with the first 43 spaces in the Forest/Laguna Canyon lot.

?Offer a 9 ½ month pass for parking in the 121 spaces in the Forest/Laguna Canyon lot furthest from downtown, with 2 ½ months of free parking at ACT V for $120 a year.

?Install parking machines for 121 stalls further out on Laguna Canyon Road, but continue to staff the lot during Festival Season and reevaluate the system after the summer.

Approved 4-0, Kinsman recused:

?Limit residential parking permits on Ocean Avenue to one per family and offer a second permit to park in the Lumberyard or Forest/Laguna lots.

The council voted to include a free shoppers permit in the second permit, which would allow parking on city streets from 4 p.m. to 11 a.m. “” three allowed hours before the meters go off for the night and three hours after they start up in the mornings, Frank said.

?Modify the business permit to increase the rate from $240 to $300 per year and eliminate use of the permit on Third Street between Mermaid Street and Forest Avenue and on Mermaid between Second and Third streets.