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.

Sign Board Makes Final Choices, Then Disbands

By Jorge Casuso

After saving 93 signs that displayed historic or artistic virtue, the Meritorious Sign Review Board quietly disbanded last week, having shaped the city's landscape for generations to come.

At its last meting Wednesday night, the five-member board added ten signs to a final list of signs pre-dating 1970 that were deemed worthy of being preserved. The meritorious signs were salvaged from an initial list of more than 1,100 signs that do not conform to a 15-year-old ordinance the city will begin enforcing on April 11.

Except for the signs approved by the board, all freestanding, protruding and rooftop signs within the Earthquake Recovery District and residential districts - which cover most of the city -- must come down. (The fate of the signs outside those two areas -- which a state law mandates must be removed at the city's expense - has yet to be determined.)

"All of these signs would have been lost," said Susan Heely Keene, a planner in charge of implementing the 1985 ordinance. "From a historic point of view, we're very fortunate to retain so many signs. They represent different eras of Santa Monica's past."

As they did at two previous meetings, business owners pleaded with the board to save their signs. Some made emotional cases, noting that their signs had been erected by ancestors who started the family business decades ago. Others cited business reasons, noting that surveys have shown that most customers are first lured to businesses by the signs.

Lawrence Brown, who owns the building that houses the Lazy Daisy Cafe on Pico made both cases for the building's 44-year-old sign. The freestanding sign, which originally advertised a real estate business, is perhaps the only one in the city with slots underneath that accommodate smaller signs with additional information.

"I think the sign falls into a lot of the categories," said Brown, who has pleaded with the board at every one of its meetings. "It is artistically significant. It may be the only one of its type in the city. The way that building is set back, it would be very hard to notice," without the sign.

Rick Butler, who said he only recently heard his Hotel California sign would have to come down, said his business would suffer without the large freestanding blue and gold sign on Ocean Avenue.

"My business depends very much on drive-by traffic," said Butler, who bought the beachfront hotel in 1997 and changed the name and the ad on the sign. "At least half the business is generated by the sign."

Butler said the sign attracted tourists who use it as a backdrop for snapshots. After criticizing the sign, the board rejected his request.

"Although the sign is atrocious," said board member R. Scott Page, "the pole is nice."

By the end of the meeting, the board had salvaged 10 final signs, including those at Hi Di Ho Comics, Simonson Mercedes and Santa Monica Ford.

The board's final meeting capped a two-month effort that saw board members - who were appointed by the City Council in June -- quadruple the city staff's list of signs that merited saving.

At its December 8 meeting, the board approved 95 signs for inclusion on the draft list of signs for meritorious inclusion. On January 26, the board gave final approval to 83 of those signs. It also asked staff to further research nine signs whose age could not be determined. On Thursday, after hearing from several dozen business owners, they approved 10 signs, bringing the total to 93.

Business owners still have a final recourse to have their signs included on the final meritorious list. Appeals of the board's decisions to include or exclude certain signs are tentatively scheduled to be heard on March 21. The cost to appeal a decision is $50 Healy Keene said.

The council also must decide what the city will do with the approximately 275 signs outside the Earthquake Recovery District and residential areas. The area where the ordinance will not be immediately enforced encompasses less than one-quarter of the city -- roughly south of Pico Boulevard, east of Cloverfield Boulevard and north of Montana.

"The rule in the books says everybody must conform," Healy Keene has said. "The reality is we can only go after those we don't have to pay just compensation. We're going to go first after those people where compensation is not required."

City officials contend that the city's sign ordinance gave businesses 15 years to comply - perhaps the longest grace period in Santa Monica's 125-year history. They say that most of the signs are eyesores that clutter the city's streets.

Opponents of the 15-year-old ordinance contend that it hurts business. They say that polls show most first time customers frequent a business because they see the sign. Opponents also argue that the ordinance will erase much of the city's character.