Saint John's Wants to Supply Less Parking

Saint John's Health Center wants to supply less parking for its volunteers, staff, doctors and patients, which residents worry could further jam their neighborhoods.

In a parking plan under review by city planners, a hospital official says there is no need to replace all of the 450 parking spaces it leases less than a half mile away at the Colorado Center. It will lose those spots March 31.

The hospital is required to provide a number of spaces "functionally equivalent" to a 442-space parking garage it avoided building in a deal struck with the city in 2011. If the city finds the proposal is not sufficient, it could force Saint John's to build the garage.

In the new proposal, Saint John's vice president of human resources, Steven Sharrer, claims the hospital is only using about 190 of the Colorado Center spaces daily and has enough parking on-site and at other private lots to satisfy peak demand.

A private consulting firm commissioned by the hospital to do a parking analysis submitted a report to the city in February supporting Saint John's proposal. It found on the busiest day, there would be 1,160 drivers looking for parking, fewer than the 1,208 spaces it will provide once its lease with the Colorado Center ends. It currently provides 1,575 spaces.

But even with the current supply, residents represented by Mid City Neighbors, the Wilshire-Montana Neighborhood Coalition and Northeast Neighbors complain about parking "abuses" on their streets, said the Mid City group's president, Gregg Heacock.

"We still see handicapped people parking far from Saint John's because of the high cost of parking," he said. And, "because the present survey is being conducted by Saint John's, this might skew results if nurses and staff would not want to admit that they are scrambling to find free parking wherever they can."

The Walker report acknowledges "parkers will almost aways prefer on-street parking." It says it is up to the city to discourage that, and recommends it hike the price to park at meters and implement parking restrictions on residential streets. There are already restrictions, however, on most streets in "comfortable" walking distance of the hospital, the report says.

About two-thirds of the cars parked next to the hospital on 23rd Street and Arizona Avenue while Walker conducted its survey had disabled placards, according to the report. It "may be difficult to mitigate," the firm said, because the placards allow drivers to park at on-street meters and in preferential parking districts for free with no length-of-stay restrictions. 

The report also recommends the hospital increase the rates it charges to employees and encourage more of them to take advantage of a "cash out" program that offers a cash allowance in lieu of a parking space. The program is designed to encourage employees to take public transit, bike, walk and carpool to work.

In December, the Colorado Center, formerly the Yahoo! Center, notified Saint John's that it was terminating a parking agreement that allowed the hospital to lease 450 spaces. Hospital officials believe the lease was terminated illegally, and are trying to retain the spots.

The hospital and its attorney, Chris Harding, did not return repeated messages seeking comment.

City Planner Roxanne Tanemori said if constructing the garage—which is estimated to cost about $25 million, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press—is determined to be "the appropriate means of curing the parking deficit," Saint John's could appeal to the City Council.

The hospital has struggled financially in the past few years, posting a $21.9 million loss in 2010 and $12.8 million in 2011, according to state records.

"Even if Saint John’s is eventually forced to build the garage, construction would take years," Daily Press columnist Bill Bauer wrote in February. "In the meantime, parking and traffic woes in the Mid-City area will worsen and everyone exposed to this debacle will continue to be poorly served."