Editor,
As a long time property owner in North Laguna (Poplar Street) I was surprised to recently learn that there has existed for some years a city parking policy that I can only characterize as placing an unfair financial burden on the residents of North Laguna, myself included. Let me explain.
The city, to its credit, is providing weekly street sweeping services for the majority of its 300 or so public streets with nearly all of those streets having no signs indicting the days the sweeping will occur or requiring residents to move parked cars to make way for the sweepers. Apparently the sweepers just go around parked cars and no parking violation tickets are issued.
That said, 27 streets, all of which are in North Laguna, are being treated differently. These few streets are posted with signs indicating sweeping days and the requirement that cars not be parked incorrectly on those days or be subject to $46 fines. Further, city records also show that parking violation revenue for just these few North Laguna streets totals about $120,000 per year or about $10,000 per month, all from just 27 streets and all from just North Laguna residents.
Now, for the record, I appreciate the street sweeping and don’t want to question that, but I believe the city should, as a matter of fairness and as a result of having this North Laguna condition brought to their attention, consider one of the following two actions: cease issuing street sweeping violation tickets on the North Laguna streets, bringing them into parity with the other city streets (my preference) or formulate a convincing parking policy statement explaining why they wish to continue ticketing just North Laguna residents and not others.
In an upcoming letter, I hope to provide additional information on this lopsided (and in my mind unfair) ticketing policy, including how it got started back in 1983, why it’s still in effect today (32 years later), and what’s currently being done by residents of North Laguna in an attempt to remedy it.
If you are interested in seeing a map of the city streets showing which are subject to street sweeping enforcement (tickets) and which are not, go to: https://lightspeed.leadpages.co/north-laguna-parking-lp/
Lowell Frazee, Laguna Beach
I know it’s really tough for you guys. So take a big breath and just put the car in the Driveway. Is that such a big problem?
Makes sense to me. Additionally, wrote a letter to the police department after a ticket was placed on my window at 9:27 a.m. for a parking violation for parking on the morning the street sweeper was to come by. The parking meter was nearby the new Caffee Urth restaurant and a friend of mine and myself were taking a coffee there to see the new renovation. The ticket was on my windshield when we returned to the car. Here’s the question: Why is the street sweeper sweeping streets at 9:27 in the morning in a business district when shops and other business are open? The signage about the sweeping day is lost among wires and bushes some four feet away from my parking space. Other cars were also ticket. Is this a cash cow for the City parking revenues? It was suggested that each parking meter be tagged and easy to read about the sweeping day. Have not checked to see if this has been completed or not.
The attribute “Fair” in context toward parking restrictions for residents in North Laguna is a perspective of location and use.
The map you have provided tells part of the story.
From a location standpoint the streets subject to restrictions and ticketing are for the most part non-metered (free) parking are in close proximity to down town, scenic beach parks, and relative access to the festivals (during peak season).
The historical significant design by the early developers of North Laguna gave a majority of the homes ample off street parking I.E. long driveways and alley ways; also the streets themselves have greater width and uniformity than the average thoroughfares in town. This contributes to the ease of accessabilty to this area’s on street parking.
As it is the city’s responsibility of monitoring and sanitation for designated public roadways; the removal of vehicles to facilitate weekly street cleaning became a necessity and also in recognizing vehicles that have stayed past their welcome.
I believe the “fair” reasoning was also a sense of balance between aesthetics for those neiborhoods streets in imposing posted parking restrictions verses metered parking.
In a parallel example (with no restrictions), neiborhood gardeners that use blowers (classified as forbidden within city limits) all culminate their lazy debris in front of a home and someone else parks over it, on the designated day for street sweeping.
Eventually though in the near future, we will see cars that are programmed to move themselves and apps that will register your vehicle for parking fees.
First world problems!
Some of us don’t have driveways! Living near the back entrance to the Festival of Arts is also a huge problem during the summer. The employees take up all the parking and block off the street leading to the entrance. Really not fair!
[…] Lowell Frazee’s letter about the parking restrictions on certain streets in North Laguna to facilitate street […]
Can’t believe the residents of North Laguna actually moved to keeping the restriction and receiving fines for this. I spoke to a rep from the City this morning by telephone and found that the majority of residents who wanted to keep this were in fact those that have their own driveways to park their vehicles and private off street parking available to them. I live in North Laguna and don’t have the luxury of a driveway or off street parking and find it pretty absurd that the rest of Laguna shouldn’t have to be held to the same standards. Absolutely mind blowing.