SR-417-005 (43)
. .-
J City of
Santa Monica'"
City Council Report
City Council Meeting: March 13, 2007
Agenda Item: 7B
To:
Mayor and City Council
From:
Eileen Fogarty, Director, Planning and Community Development
Subject:
Ordinance Amending Section 3.16.120 of the Municipal Code to Exempt
from Parking Meter Fees Vehicles with Specified Veterans License Plates
and ZEV parking decals
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that City Council introduce the attached ordinance for first reading.
This ordinance exempts from parking meter fees vehicles displaying the following
honorific license plates: Congressional Medal of Honor, Legion of Valor, Purple Heart,
American Prisoner of War, and Pearl Harbor Survivor. In addition, the amendment
expands the definition of low-emission vehicles exempt from the requirement of paying
parking meter fees to include zero-emissions vehicles (2;EV) displaying ZEV parking
decals.
Executive Summary
At its meeting on October 3, 2006, Council directed staff to evaluate possible revenue
implications and return with an ordinance exempting from parking meter fees vehicles
displaying honorific license plates such as Congressional Medal of Honor, Legion of
Valor, Purple Heart, American Prisoner of War, and Pearl Harbor Survivor. No
expenditures are required to implement this ordinance. Based upon the data gathered
1
and analyzed, loss of revenue will be less than one percent of total on-street meter
revenue. The accompanying proposed ordinance is being presented to the Council in
response to its request. The lEV portion of the amendment updates the ordinance to
include this type of electric vehicle that displays a zero-emissions parking decal.
Discussion
The proposed ordinance exempts vehicles displaying the aforementioned military
honoring license plates or the zero-emission vehicle decal from the requirement of
paying parking meter fees. Drivers of these vehicles must, however, comply with
parking restrictions such as the maximum parking time limit for the metered parking.
The military license plate portion of the exemption applies to automobiles, trucks,
motorcycles or other motor-driven forms of transportation not in excess of 6,000 pounds
gross weight, which display such a special interest license plate issued by the DMV or
any other state issuing plates of a similar status. This portion of the exemption is
modeled after policies now in effect in Culver City and Fresno.
The zero-emissions portion of the amendment is in response to the original intent of
section 3.16.120 to include such vehicles within the clear-air vehicle category, but the
state did not have an identifying method for lEV's until 2003 - a year after the Council
approved the clear-air vehicle decal amendment. If the Council wishes to make this
change on a trial basis, a sunset clause can be added to that portion of the ordinance.
2
Data Analysis
October 2006 California vehicle registration statistics obtained from the California
Energy Commission CEC (Attachment A) indicate that 28 million, 7 million, and 72,603
vehicles are registered within the state, county, and City of Santa Monica respectively
and also illustrates the number of vehicles with the aforementioned license plates within
each of those categories. The resulting percentage of the state's, county's, and city's
registered vehicles 1 with the aforementioned license plates is estimated as follows:
License Plate Type %inCA % in LA County % in Santa Monica
American POW < 1% < 1% < 1%
Congressional < 1% None None
MOH
Legion of Valor < 1% < 1% None
Pearl < 1% < 1% < 1%
Harbor Survivor
Purple Heart < 1% < 1% < 1%
Data indicates that each type of license plate composes less than 1 % of those license
plates on all registered vehicles within the state, county, and city.
To estimate the revenue that vehicles with these military plates contribute to the City's
annual on-street meter revenue, vehicles within Los Angeles County can serve as a
liberal model. Assuming only vehicles registered in Los Angeles County contributed to
all of the $7.1 M2 of on-street meter revenue, proportionally, vehicles with the
1 Vehicles defined as cars, trucks, motorcycles, and off highway
2 According to FY06-07 Adopted Budget revenue summary
3
aforementioned military license plates contributed $1,229.93 (far less than 1 %3) of total
on-street meter revenue.
According to the California Air Resources Board, less than 1,000 ZEV's are registered
throughout the state (less than 1 % of the total number of vehicles registered in the
state4). The number registered in Los Angeles County and the City of Santa Monica
was not available. Applying the same proportional analysis as above and making the
broad assumption that all ZEV's are registered in Los Angeles County, ZEV's
contributed approximately $800 of total on-street meter revenue.
Public Outreach
If adopted, a press release will be issued by the Planning and Community Development
Department. In addition, the Transportation Management Division will communicate this
policy to its personnel to aid in the dissemination of this information to its walk-in and
telephone customers and to the all necessary city departments.
BudgeUFinancial Impact
According to the data analysis, with the adoption of the attached ordinance, parking
revenues are conservatively estimated to decline by less than 1 % which is not
budgetarily significant. This projected revenue loss of approximately $2,000 utilizes
very liberal assumptions since the City does not monitor the type of vehicles using on-
street meters.
3 Actual figure: Two hundredths of one percent
4 Actual figure: Four-thousandths of one percent
4
Prepared by:
Carlos Collard, Administrative Analyst
Approved:
Forwarded to Council:
Attachment A: Military License Plate Data
Attachment B: Military License Plate Ordinance
5
Attachment A
CALIFORNIA LICENSE PLATE DATA
AMERICAN POW CARlTRUCK 1,037 143 1
CONGRESSIONAL MOH CARlTRUCK 15
LEGION OF VALOR CARlTRUCK 93 7
PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR CARlTRUCK 958 90 1
PURPLE HEART CARlTRUCK 6,203 937 8
PURPLE HEART MOTORCYCLE 246 36
OTHER (all remaining) CARlTRUCK 26,605,292 6,781,476 70,376
OTHER (all remaining) MOTORCYCLE 659,968 120,211 1,761
OTHER (all remaining) OFF HIGHWAY 988,662 138,819 456
TOTAL REGISTERED VEHICLES 28,262,474 7,041,719 72,603
City Council Meeting 3-13-07
Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER
(City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF SANTA MONICA AMENDING SECTION 3.16.120
OF THE SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL CODE TO EXEMPT FROM PARKING METER
FEES VEHICLES WITH SPECIFIED VETERANS LICENSE PLATES.
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DOES HEREBY
ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 3.16.120 is hereby amended
to read as follows:
Section 3.16.120 Operation of parking meters.
When any vehicle shall be parked in any metered parking space,
the operator immediately shall deposit the required coin in the manner
prescribed on the parking meter unless the parking meter indicates an
unexpired portion remains of the period for which coins had been
deposited previously, or the operator immediately has placed into
operation an in-vehicle parking regulator in compliance with rules and
regulations approved by the City Council or in a period of emergency
determined by an officer of the Fire or Police Department, or in
compliance with the directions of a police officer or traffic control sign or
signal. In no event shall it be lawful to park a vehicle in a designated
metered parking space in excess of the maximum parking time limit set by
the Parking and Traffic Engineer. Operators of vehicles displavinq the
followinq shall not be reQuired to deposit monev in parking meters:
Clean Air Vehicle Decal
Zero-Emissions Vehicle Parking Decal
ConQressional Medal of Honor license plate
Leaion of Valor license plate
Purple Heart license plate
American Prisoner of War license plate
Pearl Harbor Survivor license plate
SECTION 3. Any provision of the Santa Monica Municipal Code or appendices
thereto inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance, to the extent of such
inconsistencies and no further, is hereby repealed or modified to that extent necessary
to effect the provisions of this Ordinance.
SECTION 4. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of
this Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a
decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the
validity of the remaining portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby
declares that it would have passed this Ordinance and each and every section,
subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase not declared invalid or unconstitutional
without regard to whether any portion of the ordinance would be subsequently
declared invalid or unconstitutional.
SECTION 5. The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall attest to the
passage of this Ordinance. The City Clerk shall cause the same to be published
once in the official newspaper within 15 days after its adoption. This Ordinance
shall become effective 30 days from its adoption.
APPROVED AS TO FORM: