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Community Corner

Residents Tell City Manager Parking Is Priority One

Santa Monica residents overwhelmingly voiced concern about parking and development at last night's "Can We Talk?" event with City Manager Rod Gould. Officials took the community input and let them know they were on top of it.

Residents of Santa Monica shared one of their primary concerns with the future of their city last night with City Manager Rod Gould, parking.

The third in a series of seven scheduled “Can We Talk?” events – this one cosponsored by the Wilshire Montana Neighborhood Coalition – members of the community were encouraged to speak out about things they wanted or that the city could improve upon, which ranged from parking and development to bicycle safety.

Sara Binder, a 50 year Santa Monica resident, said that parking around the senior living center Westminster Towers where she lives is so bad she has had her car totaled in front of her apartment. To avoid further damage vehicles in the area she suggested the city to make the area around the 1100 block of 7th street a permit parking zone.

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Gould said that to make the area a permit parking zone the city would need to receive petitions from more than 67 percent of residents in that area. However, because of Binder's disability she is unable to collect signatures on her own.

 “I’ve seen emails from this lady and we understand her situation,” Gould said.

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But Ellen Hannan, a Santa Monica resident since 1971, warned that it might not be easy to get the petitions required.

“Many of the buildings are locked so you can’t get in to get signatures … we did it in my neighborhood -- we also got streetlights by petitioning in my neighborhood over on the South Side,” Hannan said. “It is possible to do this, but it is a lot of leg work and you have to do a lot of door knocking and if the doors are locked and you can’t get into the buildings, it is useless.”

Residents also questioned no parking zones in the western part of the Wilmont area that make some streets no parking zones beginning at 7 a.m., despite the fact that most people don’t usually head in to work until 8 a.m., essentially making the area a no overnight parking zone.

Martin Pastucha, director of public works, said that if the department sets a later start times it would impact cleaning times in other parts of the city and could create even bigger parking issues in other commercial and residential areas.

Residents were also concerned about a development project at 4th and Broadway which will create 56 residential units without a single new parking space. Residents feared that the project, approved just last week by the planning commission, could set unwelcome precedent of allowing development projects that don’t create any new parking.

David Martin, director of planning and community development, explained that this particular project was unique because of its location in the Downtown Parking Assessment District. Therefore, it was not required to provide its own parking on-site and instead will pay a fee that goes into improving downtown parking and its residents will use surrounding garages. The planning commission also approved the project because of its location near the transit center.  

“It is not something I think you would see done in other parts of town, or even in other parts of downtown,” Martin said. “They (the planning commission) just felt that at that particular corner, the building could go through without parking.”

Martin said that he and the city welcomed the community members’ feedback.

“I think most of the issues that came up tonight we know about, or are working on,” Martin said.

Residents also voiced concerns over bicycle safety and ordinances that require riders to follow the rules of the road just like vehicles that are often ignored.

Police Chief Tim Jackman said many violations that take place because riders are simply don't know the rules of the road.

To address this growing problem, Jackman said he recently hired a police sergeant to be the bicycle ambassador for the department to work with the bicycle and community. Together they have devised a plan to offer riders who are ticketed for traffic violations to receive the option of attending a bicycle safety course, which they will pay for, in lieu of the fine for their first offense.

The next “Can We Talk?” session is being cosponsored by the Pico Neighborhood Association and will take place on Dec. 12 at 2200 Virginia Avenue at the Virginia Avenue Park Thelma Terry Community Room.

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