Unused parking irritates

A parking lot sitting empty downtown is frustrating for city officials obsessed with finding more space for vehicles.

The City Council voted Tuesday to appoint Mayor Jane Egly and Mayor Pro Tem Cheryl Kinsman to try to negotiate a deal that would make spaces in the parking lot on Ocean Avenue behind the post office available to the public on weekends and nights, when it sits empty. The lot, in the Lumberyard Mall at 384 Forest Ave., used to be open to the public at all hours. However, mall management closed it to the public and leased some spaces to the U.S. Post Office and a mall tenant, the council was told. The rented spaces are used only on weekdays and even then some of the spaces are empty, which galls city officials obsessed with finding more parking downtown.

“It is a waste of these 15 parking spaces to have them unused when there is such a parking demand for the public and other businesses in the area,” said Councilwoman Toni Iseman, who also proposed a meeting with post office officials. “What is most amazing is that the post office spots are reserved for employees, not customers.”

A previous attempt to convince the postmaster to open the spaces to customers was unsuccessful.

One option proposed was to offer free parking for the employees in city-owned lots about a block from the post office in return for public parking for customer parking, but that didn’t fly.

“The rest of you [council] have not had the pleasure the city manager and I had of trying to negotiate with the postmaster in Laguna Niguel,” Kinsman said.

“He let us know that we are a city and they are federal and their employees don’t want to walk.”

Egly said it was worth another try.

“Only if you want to buy stamps,” Kinsman said.

Iseman has a backup plan if the city post office proves uncooperative.

“If they refuse, I am taking pictures and mailing them to our representatives in Washington,” Iseman said.

Furthermore, she opined the council should take its case to the media.

Iseman also recommended Egly and Kinsman meet with the mall management to try to maximize public use of the parking spaces under the structure, as well as the surface lot.

“Perhaps there are opportunities for the city to lease spaces at times when they are not used by the tenants of the building,” Iseman said.

Public parking is available in the underground lot.

Customers or clients of tenants can get their stubs validated. The other users pay a fee.

BARBARA DIAMOND can be reached at (949) 494-4321 or [email protected].