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SR-012709-11a~® City of ®'~y ®®~~1®/'~ ®\Gp®9L Santa Monica City Council Meeting: January 27, 2009 Agenda Item: ~ ~ ~~ }~ To: Mayor and City Council From: Eileen Fogarty, Director, Planning and Community Development Subject: Amendment of Preferential Parking Zone EE Recommended Action Staff recommends that City Council: 1. Amend Zone EE to restrict parking to residents at all times on the streets listed below. The current restrictions are: "No vehicle shall be parked adjacent to any curb in Preferential Parking Zone EE between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. daily, except. by permit." The four affected blocks are: • Longfellow Street between Marine and Ozone Streets (two blocks), • Navy Street between Longfellow Street and Lincoln Boulevard, and • Ozone Street between Longfellow Street. and Lincoln Boulevard. 2. Approve the attached Resolution amending Preferential Parking Zone EE and amending Resolution 9344 CCS (Resolution of the City Council of the City of Santa Monica Re-Establishing Various Preferential Parking Zones) by replacing Exhibit A. Executive Summary Located at the southern city limits, the Borderline Neighborhood is bounded by Lincoln Boulevard on the east, Ozone Street on the south, .7th Street on the west and Marine Street on the north. The City Council. approved daytime parking restrictions in May 1996 for the Borderline Neighborhood. All of the pre-approved blocks have preferential parking restrictions implemented. The first block of residents from this neighborhood submitted a complete petition to extend the restrictions to 24 hours daily in October 2006. Currently four blocks have petitioned. Residents state that customers of restaurants on Lincoln Boulevard park on their streets at night, even though metered parking is available on Lincoln Boulevard. These meters are free of charge from 6 pm until 9 am and all day Sunday (with no parking allowed from 3 am to 5 am). In addition to parking incursions from the land uses along Lincoln Boulevard, there is a history of illicit activity in the area. Residents specifically mentioned the use of their streets for criminal activities, although the Santa Monica Police Department reports that the crime rates are currently not greater than other areas. While there are some other preferential parking areas that restrict parking 24 hours a day, staff is generally not supportive of 1 supportive of such severe regulations and typically recommends the least restrictive regulations that enable residents to park near their homes. This particular area of the Borderline neighborhood is characterized as consisting of older residential units on small parcels with residents reliant on limited street parking while competing with parking associated with Lincoln Boulevard businesses. Given the uniqueness of this neighborhood's parking challenges, staff supports the residents' request, restricting parking to residents only at all times. No change in revenue is anticipated as residents on affected blocks are already eligible to purchase permits. Background This is primarily asingle-family neighborhood comprised of older homes on small parcels, many reliant on on-street parking, located at the southern boundary of the City of Santa Monica, just west of Lincoln Bouelvard. Commercial businesses, including auto-oriented services, line Lincoln Boulevard. There are also a few restaurants that operate into the evening. The existing preferential parking regulations state "No parking 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m, daily, except by permit," and were established by Council in 1996. The surrounding blocks to the north, west, and east of this neighborhood do not have preferential parking. Discussion Residents of four blocks in Zone EE have submitted completed qualifying petitions to change their existing regulations to 24 hours daily: • 3100 block of Longfellow between Marine and Navy (October 2007) • 3200 block of Longfellow between Navy and Ozone (October 2007) 800 block of Navy between Longfellow and Lincoln (October 2006) 800 block of Ozone between Longfellow and Lincoln (October 2007) At this time, no petitions have been submitted to change the restrictions on the 700 blocks of Navy or Ozone Streets. Current Situation The following graphic shows the current preferential parking restrictions in the neighborhood. 2 Current Preferential Parking in Neighborhood Parking occupancy counts were conducted in Summer 2008. The counts were conducted primarily on Thursdays in the evening, as this day and time of the week was specifically identified by residents as being the worst for parking. The counts indicate that on-street parking on the residential streets can be difficult to find. Average occupancies range from 45 to 103 percent. Peak occupancies .from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. range from 50 percent to over 100 percent (more parked cars than there are parking spaces). However, it is important to note that the two observed instances. of parking occupancies greater than 100 percent were due to cars being parked in front of private driveways on Ozone Street. Therefore, even though there were more cars parked on this street than there are legal parking spaces, there were still a few spaces available. Nevertheless, these figures are slightly misleading as there are so few parking spaces 3 on the blocks in question; on most of these blocks, adding only one additional parked car raises the occupancy almost 20 percent. Full study results are included as Attachment B. There are currently four zones that allow parking by permit only 24-hours a day. Generally, staff seeks the least restrictive solutions, however in this case, like those previously approved, 24-hour restrictions are warranted due to impacts of business parking, illicit activities and neighborhood parcel characteristics. Staff is recommending the 24 hour regulations for this zone, as compared to regstrictions that would end at 2 am daily, to simplify signage for motorists. Confusing parking regulation signage is a frequent source of complaints from the public. Public Outreach Residents; businesses and others in the area were invited to a community meeting on June 11, 2008. Three people attended and spoke about: • the difficulties they have finding parking, especially on street-cleaning days, • vehicles being parked for longer than 72 hours, and restaurant patrons parking on these streets. Complete comments are included as Attachment C. Alternatives The Council could choose not to modify this zone. They could also choose different hours and types of restrictions than are recommended in this report. Environmental Analvsis The proposed project has been. determined to be categorically exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), pursuant to Article 19, Section 15301 (c) which was recently amended to define Class 1 exempt projects in the following way: "Class 1 consists of the operation, repair, maintenance,. permitting, leasing, licensing, or minor alteration of existing public or private structures, facilities, 4 mechanical equipment, or topographical features, involving little or no expansion of use beyond that existing at the time of the lead agency's determination..." This exemption lists as an example of "existing facilities:" "(c) Existing highways and streets, sidewalks, gutters, bicycle and pedestrian trails, and similar facilities." Preferential parking zones involve only the issuance of .permits for the use of an existing public street and include negligible or no expansion of this existing use. Financial Impact & Budget Actions No change in revenue is anticipated as residents on affected blocks are already eligible to purchase permits. Prepared by: Jason Kligier, Transportation Planning Assistant Approved: Forwarded to Council: ~~-~--' Eileen Fogarh a o'nt Ewell Director, Cit anager Planning and Commu " y Development Attachments: A Resolution Establishing Preferential Parking, Exhibit A - Preferential Parking Zones B Parking Occupancy Study Results C June 11, 2008 Neighborhood Meeting Comments 5 Attachment B Parking Occupancy Study Results Thursday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Borderline Neighborhood Parking Counts .6/26/08 7/24/08 8/17/08 8/27/08 Thursday, 9/11/08 Total Spaces Average 4:20 PM 9:00 PM 1:00 AM 6:00 PM 6:15 PM 8:00 PM 10:25 PM Occupancy Longfellow b/w Marine and Navy East 5 3 4 4 3 6 6 6 .~ ~~~~_~° "-_: Percentage 83% 50% 67% 67% 50% 100% 100% {,. 74% West 5 4 7 1 5 5 7 8 ~~~ '~ Y Percentage 63% 50% 88% 13% 63% 63% 88% `,` ~~"z_ 61% Longfellow b/w Navy and Ozone East Percentage 3 50% 3 50% 4 67% 3 50% 1 17% 3 50% 5 83% 6 ~'_~_ ~ ".: 52% West 3 3 3 1 2 3 4 6 x s,,:`:° ~ Percentage 50% 50% 50% 17% 33% 50% 67% .z,~~ ~,,,r ~,~~ „ 45% Navy b/w Lincoln and Longfellow* North 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ,'~~f ~ s't Percentage 0% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% ;7h.'. '' 86% Ozone b/w Lincoln and Longfellow North 3 5 5 3 3 5 5 6 ,x>, „~; Percentage 50% 83% 83% 50% 50% 83% 83% f `~° t'~ 69% South 3 5 7 4 5 5 7 5 ~"" ~~~ Percentage 60% 100% 140% 80% 100% 100% 140% r i''' 103% 'There is no parking on the south side of Navy Street. Attachment C Comments from Longfellow Preferential Parking Community Meeting • Where will employees of Lincoln businesses park? • Residents of Navy (west of Longfellow) want overnight parking restrictions • Cars left on Longfellow for over 72 hours • Mariscos restaurant customers impact Ozone Street • Dance nights at Santino's make it difficult to park on Longfellow • Consensus is that it is worse during street cleaning • Possibility of pre-approving a larger area that might want night time restrictions • How far do residents want overnight restrictions? • What regulations by Ozone Park? • On site parking is not used • There are more cars owned than there are parking spaces on the street • Existing parking garages in the neighborhood are old and small In attendance: 3 Melidi Mohlashami Dennis Woods Robert Rotman Reference Resolution No. 10379 (CCS).