Competition for curb-side parking spots intensifies every day in Los Angeles County as the population grows and new houses and businesses sprout up, squeezing more cars, trucks and motorcycles in with the 6 million already on the streets.
In the City of Los Angeles, "it's harder to find a place to park today than it was (the) day before yesterday," said Bob Yates, assistant general manager of the city Transportation Department.
It will be even harder tomorrow, if projected growth estimates are any indication. By 2020, the number of Los Angeles County residents is expected to increase 20%, from 7.5 million in 1980 to 9 million. And the Department of Motor Vehicles predicts that the number of vehicles on county roads will increase at the same rate as the population.
Annoyed Residents
From Anaheim to Northridge, annoyed residents are setting up districts where the only cars that can be legally left on the streets belong to people who live in the neighborhood and pay for parking permits.
So far, residents of neighborhoods near colleges and areas where business and entertainment districts are spreading have been among the first to resort to permit parking to ensure that convenient parking will be available. But the notion is also taking hold elsewhere.
"We're getting more and more requests every day," said Richard Jaramillo, the transportation engineer in charge of Los Angeles' permit parking program. He estimated that that since January, he has sent information to about 240 people, more than twice as many as in 1986.
Songwriter Rick Olsen became a staunch advocate of permit parking the day he watered a red Mercedes and tangled with its angry owner in North Hollywood.
Tired of waiting for the Mercedes to leave the two-hour parking space in front of his house, Olsen began watering his parched lawn. Within minutes, the owner of the luxury sedan was banging on his front door.
"The guy was yelling at me about getting his car wet," Olsen said. "Then he just sort of huffed off. I couldn't believe it."
The confrontation with the Mercedes owner was the last straw for Olsen. Frustrated by the dwindling supply of available parking spaces, he petitioned the city to establish a preferential parking district in his six-block neighborhood near busy Lankershim Boulevard and Universal Studios.
If established, the district would limit parking for at least part of each day to residents who spend $15 a vehicle for an annual permit.
The City of Los Angeles already has 21 permit parking districts, Jaramillo said, and 15 more have been proposed. The City Council will vote on four of the 15 within the next three months.
Increasing Number Cropping Up
Sixteen of the already established zones are on the densely developed Westside, but an increasing number are cropping up wherever business districts or universities abut residential areas, Jaramillo said.
Traffic engineers in Long Beach, Hermosa Beach, West Hollywood, Anaheim and other smaller cities report similar trends.
"People are really asking for preferential parking," Long Beach Traffic Engineer Dick Backus said. "It's now common knowledge that we do have such zones, and a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon."
Few people seem pleased by the prospect. Transportation engineers emphasize that permit parking is only a short-term solution. Residents complain about having to pay for the right to park near their homes. Merchants fear that customers will drive away if they can not park conveniently.
Even Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, the father of Los Angeles' 1979 permit parking ordinance, characterized the process as "painful."
"Sometimes I wonder why I did it," Yaroslavsky said. "The creation of a permit parking district is a very painful exercise for a neighborhood. . . . It's imperfect, but I don't know a better system. You cannot make the front of somebody's home into a virtual parking lot."
Different Process
Although the steps to create a preferential parking district differ from city to city, the process is usually kicked off by a public hearing to determine the level of interest among neighborhood residents. A petition with the signatures of a majority of the residents is the next step.
In Los Angeles, two-thirds of the residents in at least a six-block area must sign a petition. The Department of Transportation then conducts a parking survey by checking license plates with the Department of Motor Vehicles to see if the majority of vehicles parking in the area belong to non-residents. If the survey demonstrates that 75% of the area's parking spaces are full during peak hours and that 25% of the cars belong to non-residents, a second public hearing is scheduled.
After the hearing, the Department of Transportation makes a recommendation to the City Council's Transportation and Traffic Committee, which ultimately decides whether or not to establish a district.
