Paid parking in La Jolla’s Village, Shores and along the Bird Rock commercial strip was a suggestion in the proposed parking management plan presented Thursday, March 8, by the La Jolla Parking Advisory Board.
Largely based on author Donald Shoup’s “The High Cost of Free Parking,” the proposed plan ” which several residents and board members opposed ” could free up 10 to 15 percent of parking spaces in congested areas, according to Ray Weiss, La Jolla Town Council (LJTC) representative for the parking board.
“If we implement a plan for parking in downtown La Jolla, then we also need to do the same for residential and beach areas,” Weiss told LJTC and audience members at the meeting. “It’s like a balloon: If you put too much pressure on one area, then the balloon pops out in other places.”
The board, created in 2005 by City Council to diffuse parking-related issues, drafted a five-page outline that lists paid parking, increased enforcement and time limits as a three-pronged strategy to manage parking in La Jolla.
The LJTC heard the plan as an informational presentation and voted against a motion to form an ad-hoc committee to also review the issue. The parking board will continue to discuss and revise the plan in the coming months, according to Weiss.
Several residents and board members at the meeting recognized La Jolla’s parking problem but were not ready to accept the idea of a paid parking system.
LJTC Vice President Anne Cleveland called paid parking “nothing but a problem,” pointing out that Del Mar and Mission Hills implemented meters and still face traffic congestion and parking space shortages.
Some residents argued that La Jolla’s problem is not a lack of available parking spaces but instead the lack of adequate enforcement ” a theory that is also addressed in the proposed Parking Board Plan.
“Do we really have a parking problem? I’m not entirely sure about that,” La Jolla resident Orrin Gabsch said. “We definitely have an enforcement problem, and I don’t know how we are going to get more enforcement, because the [police] unions aren’t going to cave.”
The resident suggested that La Jolla look at alternative forms of enforcement, such as uniform time limits throughout the community. He agreed with the part of the plan that encourages use of GPS tracking systems, which allow officers to identify how long a vehicle has been parked in a particular space.
LJTC member Ed Ward pointed out that the city should require private parking structures and other off-street parking lots to stay open later in the evening as part of their licensing ” a measure he said could additionally reduce on-street parking.
He also pointed out that La Jolla should consider making better use of its existing spaces by restriping them with time limits that correspond more sensibly with locations.
Gabsch also questioned whether the parking board had set a time frame for completing a final draft of the plan. Parking board member Martin Mosier responded by stating that the board felt a sense of urgency because city staff informed him that uniform parking regulations for the city’s beach communities were being considered for the July 1 budget.
Keely Sweeney, representative for District 1 Council President Scott Peters, said Peters was informed the action was not an attempt to do away with community parking boards.
The beach parking regulations would be a response to a report from Mayor Jerry Sanders’ office outlining an issue with parking in the city’s beach communities and would only be a framework for individual communities, said Stephen Lew, the mayor’s District 1 representative.
Weiss, joined by several other LJTC and parking board members, pointed to the threat of possible city or county actions as a motivation for the parking board to hold additional community discussions and finalize a parking plan.
“There is something that might work here,” LJTC member Patrick Ahern said about the proposed plan. “It behooves us to at least be at the bargaining table with the city, so I think it’s worth thinking about.”
But one resident said he feared that parking meters, which he referred to as “very unsightly,” would only deter people from doing business in La Jolla. The man brought a petition signed by about 10 La Jolla business owners who opposed implementing the measure, he said.
Resident Gail Forbes pointed out that paid parking might not only be detrimental to business but also to the quality of life of those who live and work in La Jolla.
“A sense of community and social interactions are important, too,” Forbes said, pointing out that paid parking might discourage people from spending time in the community.
Forbes suggested that the parking board prioritize its three-pronged solution plan so the city would not have free rein to only implement certain elements.
Weiss agreed with Forbes and said the most important thing is for the parking board to continue working as a united group, because separating into smaller clusters based on shared opinions could allow the city to exercise more power over parking decisions.
“The plan is intended to be a living thing ” it’s not intended that the board writes this plan and then it gets done by the city,” Weiss said. “This plan is intended to be done by us. We need to get the city to recognize that we are doing this and that they need to back off.”
Shoup is scheduled to speak about parking management at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, at the Museum of Contemporary Art La Jolla’s Sherwood Auditorium, 700 Prospect St. The forum is free and open to the public.
To view the La Jolla Parking Advisory Board’s parking management plan, visit www.lajollabythesea.com/membersonly/. For more information about community parking advisory boards, visit the city’s Web site, www.sandiego.gov, and click on “Economic Development and Small Business Districts.”