NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS | April 9, 2013
Alert: We Need Support for OPDs and PPDs Now
Action needed: Please send this message to the following
officials:
I support the settlement in the OPD lawsuit. Venice
needs overnight restricted parking to address loss of parking on a
block-by-block basis where non-resident vehicles are taking up scarce parking
at night. The settlement provides
sufficient parking close to the beach for early morning visitors. I also support the proposal to allow
residents to implement preferential parking districts (PPDs) adjacent to
commercial corridors where the City and the Coastal Commission have allowed the
expansion of new retail shops and restaurants without the provision of adequate
off-street parking for patrons.
Officials’ Email Addresses:
City of Los Angeles: <billrosendahl@aol.com>, <mike.bonin@lacity.org>, <Arturo.Pina@lacity.org>,
<Paul.Backstrom@lacity.org>, <paola.valdivia@lacity.org>,
<tamara.martin@lacity.org>, <felix.valde@lacity.org>
Neighborhood Council: <Board@VeniceNC.org>
Coastal Commission: <clester@coastal.ca.gov>,
<jainsworth@coastal.ca.gov>,
<cposner@coastal.ca.gov>,
Mary Shallenberger c/o vanessa.miller@coastal.ca.gov,
Steve Kinsey <skinsey@marincounty.org>,
Dayna Bochco c/o <ann@ceresfm.com>
(This alert is also posted at www.venicestakeholdersassocation.org
for your convenience. You can just cut and paste the message and
addresses.)
Background: As mentioned in our earlier notice,
the VSA and the City have reached a tentative settlement with the California
Coastal Commission staff that will give Venice
residents the opportunity to implement overnight
restricted parking (OPDs) on their streets.
Now the Commission must formally approve the settlement.
To recap, this means that if residents on your block petition by
a two-thirds majority, the City will post signage that will limit parking from
2 AM to 5 AM to residents and their guests who have a permit. Annual permits are $15, temporary four month permits
for visitors are $10, and nightly permits (for parties, etc.) are $1. (See links below for more information).
With the “No Oversize Vehicle” signage, we have found that those
with campers and RVs will not park in a street space in the early evening if
they cannot spend the entire night in that space. We expect the OPD signs will work the same
way, encouraging those who are non-residents to seek out other parking in the
early evening instead of parking in front of our homes at night.
The settlement
basically assures the Coastal Commission that hundreds of empty parking spaces near
the beach will continue to be available to early morning visitors by exempting
from OPD eligibility certain metered spaces and street spaces in front of
government and commercial uses within two blocks of the beach. Under the settlement, the City also agrees to
open up several City owned parking lots (excluding the lot at Main and Rose) for
early morning visitors, again freeing up hundreds of spaces (which we believe
will rarely be used due to lack of demand at 5 AM, but this was the “price” of
the settlement).
The City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has also stated
that at the same time the OPD settlement goes before the Commission (set for
early June), DOT will present a request for “Approval in Concept” of a preferential permit parking (PPD) plan
to allow residents within 1,500 feet of a commercial corridor (e.g., Rose
Avenue, Abbot Kinney) to set up preferential parking districts that would limit
visitor parking during the day to two or four hours between 8 AM and 6 PM and
limit parking after 6 PM to residents only. This option is desperately needed due to the
tremendous success of these business corridors and the City and Coastal
Commission’s failure to require adequate on-site parking at new retail shops
and restaurants.
Why we need your help right now: First, the DOT engineer who
championed the OPD settlement and the preferential parking proposal for Venice has retired and it
appears that DOT has not assigned another engineer to flesh out the PPD proposal. Our
requests for a written copy of the proposal have gone without reply. Now, with Venice’s parking issues going to the Coastal Commission,
it is the time for the PPD concept to be put before them as well. Second, two leading anti-OPD advocates, Linda
Lucks and David Ewing, are already orchestrating a campaign to defeat both
proposals.
The ironies in their opposition are striking. While Linda Lucks is the president of the
Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC), she lives in the Del Rey neighborhood and
thus will not be affected by either OPDs or PPDs. While the official position of the VNC is
support of OPDs following the 59\% vote of the residents in favor in 2009, Lucks
has been organizing yet another “Town Hall” on OPDs to give anti-OPD forces another
forum to try to reverse the VNC’s position.
She also has a conflict of interest, which the VSA has noted in a
complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission and the City Ethics
Commission; she is a paid consultant to the Venice Community Housing
Corporation, which is a vigorous opponent of OPDs. And, instead of supporting
PPDs, she has called them a “red herring.”
Lucks’ partner in this effort, David Ewing, also lives outside the
portion of Venice
that would benefit from OPDs and PPDs.
He lives east of Lincoln, just down the
street from an area of Venice
that already has OPDs, in part because it is not under Coastal Commission
jurisdiction. But he wants to deny those
in the part of Venice
west of Lincoln the right he and his neighbors enjoy to reserve parking at
night for residents and their guests.
Lucks, Ewing and their
colleagues make the spurious claim that somehow visitor access to the coast
will be hampered by OPDs and PPDs. The
Coastal Commission assured in the settlement terms that there will be ample
parking in the early morning for years to come for the handful of fishers,
joggers and surfers who arrive at 5 AM.
And PPDs would only affect commercial corridors that are at considerable
distance from the coast and are not an attractive parking location for visitors
for that reason.
To finally get some relief for
residents to address the historic parking shortage in Venice, please send the message above to the
officials listed.
And please send this request to all
your Venice
friends and neighbors today and ask them to send the pro-OPD/PPD message out as
soon as possible.
If you have any questions, please call me at (310)
392-4843. Many thanks for your
support.
Mark
Ryavec
President,
Venice
Stakeholders Association
P.S. Your financial
support for the VSA is also needed. This has been a long and expensive
legal battle and legal bills remain. I would greatly appreciate if you would
make a tax-deductible contribution to the VSA of $200 or more to help us defray
these costs. Contributions can be made by PayPal through our website
(venicestakeholdersassociation.org) or sent to 453 Rialto Avenue, Venice,
CA 90291.
Links for info on OPD permits
http://www.lacity-parking.org/laopm/annual_overnight_permit.html
http://www.lacity-parking.org/laopm/visitor_overnight_permit.html
http://www.lacity-parking.org/laopm/guest_overnight_permit.html
http://www.lacity-parking.org/laopm/visitor_overnight_permit.html
http://www.lacity-parking.org/laopm/guest_overnight_permit.html
