City Preps Residents to Defend Beach Parking Zones

By Jorge Casuso

On the surface, it seemed just another meeting of city staff and their constituents.

But with seven Ocean Park preferential parking zones on the line - all of them more than 10 years old -, Saturday's meeting at the Ken Edwards Center was anything but routine.

Instead of just providing information and listening to concerns, planning department staff helped coach and organize some three dozen residents for a crucial Coastal Commission meeting Tuesday morning.

After a year's delay, the commission finally will decide the fate of 936 preferential parking spaces south of Pico Boulevard and east of Lincoln Boulevard that were created by the city without commission approval between 1983 and 1989. The commission discovered the spaces in 1998, while considering the Edgemar Development project on Main Street.

"Don't be exclusionary," Planning Director Suzanne Frick advised the residents. "What is important is to put a face on this issue. We don't want to alienate this commission."

Among the key points city staff encouraged residents to make are the dearth of street parking, the availability of parking in beach lots and the make up of the community (it is not just rich homeowners).

Residents who spoke at Saturday's meeting said they feared that if preferential parking is revoked they wouldn't be able to move their cars or entertain guests, especially on weekends, because there will often be nowhere to park near their homes.

"I can't leave during the day, but there are empty spaces on the beach," said one resident who lives in a zone near Main Street with no daytime restrictions. "As usual, the residents are going to be caught in the middle of this squabble."

While there are 2,400 spaces in Ocean Park's two beach lots, it costs $7 to park ($6 during the winter.) By comparison, unrestricted street parking is free.

Frick, however, warned against bringing up the underused lot, saying that lowering the rates - which already are cheaper than the rates at Venice Beach and Will Rogers State Park - is not on the table.

She did encourage residents who blamed the parking woes not on beach goers, but on employees and customers of Main Street businesses, to speak out on Tuesday.

"It's a major impact," said Roger Genser, a 22-year resident of Ocean Park who helped organize the first Ocean Park zone in 1983. "It was a reaction against Main Street. It had nothing to do with beach parking."

Tuesday's decision will center on whether Santa Monica's zones restrict access to the beach, which the Coastal Commission was created in 1976 to protect.

Commission staff has recommended that the seven zones be retained - with the caveat that the city must reapply for the permits in three years. The city opposes that condition, saying it would be too costly, inhibit long-range planning and leave residents in limbo. Instead city staff is proposing to conduct a parking monitoring program and file a report within five years.

Commission staff also is requiring the city to create 154 spaces to help replenish those taken up by preferential parking. Of these, 65 already have been created. The city also must keep the Tide and Pier beach shuttles running during the summer months.

While Coastal Commission staff seems sympathetic to the plight of beach area residents, it is impossible to predict what the commission will do, Frick said. One warning sign was a complaint by a commissioner who visited the beach to watch the sunset and found no place to park.

"We've been discussing this with the staff for a year and a half," Frick said. "I think this really boils down to philosophical issues with the commission."

Although the city has been negotiating with commission staff, it also has made it clear that it is prepared to file a lawsuit if the commission revokes the zones.

"We have a difference of legal opinion as to whether the Coastal Commission even has authority," Frick said. "We would prefer to go through the process and have a positive outcome."

Since the Coastal Act was passed in 1976, the Coastal Commission has required cities to apply for permits for the special parking zones.

Historically, the Coastal Commission has granted permission for preferential parking zones in coastal communities, often imposing strict conditions to ensure plenty of public parking and beach access.

Since 1982 the commission has approved three applications from Hermosa Beach, Santa Cruz and Capitola. The commission, however, has denied preferential parking permits for Santa Monica's closest neighbors - Venice to the south and Pacific Palisades to the north.

In 1998 approximately 7.5 million visitors flocked to Santa Monica beaches. Over the past 28 years beach attendance has grown by 20 percent.

City Manager Susan McCarthy, who did not attend the meeting, said it would be "unforgivable" if residents weren't prepared given what's at stake.

"The Coastal Commission has a relatively clear mission laid out in the law, and in this situation, it may not be a mission that is sympathetic," McCarthy said. "This would certainly be a profound change."

The Coastal Commission will meet Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the Four Points Sheraton, 530 Pico Blvd.

Staff writer Teresa Rochester contributed to this report.

City to Study Disconnecting Cell Phones in Cars

By Teresa Rochester

They're as much a part of the Westside landscape as lattes and SUVs, but using cell phones while negotiating traffic may not be welcome in Santa Monica.

Expressing concern about what they may be getting into, the City Council Tuesday night unanimously agreed to study the possibility of prohibiting the use of hand held cell phones while driving -- a practice supporters say distracts drivers and causes them to be reckless on roads.

"I think many of us have observed people who are using hand-held cell phones that are driving in an unsafe manner," said Councilman Paul Rosenstein, who suggested the city study the issue. "I'm not prejudging how we would go about it but it may be useful to study this."

Councilmen Richard Bloom and Kevin McKeown cautioned that the city may be stepping into something bigger than it expects.

"I think it is a more complex issue than it seems to be," McKeown said.

"I think this is a can of worms and there are a lot of nuances," agreed Bloom before the council voted 6 to 0 (Mayor Ken Genser was absent) to support the study.

Rosentein, who is following the lead of Brooklyn, Ohio and Hilltown, where bans are already in place, cited the findings of a 1997 Canadian study that found that cell phones in cars quadrupled the risk of an accident, even among drivers who used "hands-free" phones. The study also stated that regulations must consider the benefits of cell phones in cases such as emergencies.

Opponents of the study said that police are already charged with the right to cite unsafe drivers and that such a ban would be pointless. Supporters however said it was high time for such a ban.

"We as well as the Highway Patrol are against it," GTE spokeswoman Aiko Broom told the council. "This is how we communicate today. Is this what we want our SMPD to be doing?"

Broom urged the council to join GTE and the Cellular Carriers of California Association, a lobbying group, in a campaign to educate drivers, instead of regulating them.

Resident Anita Philips however was excited by the prospect of having drivers keep both hands on the steering wheel instead of one clutching a phone. "I might disagree with you [Rosenstein] on several issues. But on this I embrace you passionately," she said.

Philips told the council she had almost been run down in an alley, when a man on cell phone barrelled down the narrow stretch without honking.

"He said (f---) you lady. I only have two hands," Philips told the council. "And one hand was on the cell phone."

Rosenstein said he also may broaden a ban to include putting on makeup, shaving and faxing in the car. No time line for the study was discussed.