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.

Last-minute Maneuver Delays City's $2.1 Million Grant to Schools

By Teresa Rochester and Jorge Casuso

In one of the most bizarre City Council decisions in recent memory, the council voted Tuesday night not to grant $2.1 million to the beleaguered school district. It then promptly decided to reconsider the measure next week, averting a stalemate that could have threatened to kill the school bailout.

Missing two members of the Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights super-majority, the council vote will buy time for Mayor Ken Genser to return from the hospital, virtually assuring that the council will pass the one-time grant.

(Councilman Kevin McKeown cannot cast a vote because he is under contract with the district. Allocating money not in the budget requires five votes.)

Spurred by a surprise announcement last Friday that the district faced a $2.45 million, and not a $1.45 million, budget shortfall in the 2000/2001 school year, minority Councilmen Paul Rosenstein tried to force conditions on the grant. He moved that the council require the district to establish an independent financial oversight committee and bring in a consultant to conduct an independent analysis before the money is disbursed.

"There is no other area in the city's budget where we give a blank check," said Rosenstein. "We simply want to be assured that the things we say will happen happen and that the community is confident." Noting that the district had miscalculated its funds three times in 18 months, the former mayor said he didn't want the district to "shuck and jive people."

But the three SMMR-backed council members accused Rosenstein of "holding the children hostage" and "micromanaging the district."

"I hope we as a council are not going to hold the children of Santa Monica hostage," said Mayor Pro Tem Pam O'Connor, who chaired the meeting in Genser's absence. "But we must hold the feet of the district to the fire."

"The school board is accountable to the people of this community not to the council," said Councilman Michael Feinstein. "We should provide money for the district to conduct an independent study, but I don't think it should be in the top down, I'm the parent, you're the child manner."

Feinstein had proposed a motion to approve the grant and direct staff to identify additional funds to avert cuts in programs and staff. Feinstein also proposed that the city provide funds to conduct a study of the district's finances and work with the district to identify future funding sources.

Feinstein's motion set off a volley of chess-like maneuvers, with two former SMRR mayors attempting to coach the council majority from the sidelines. Former Mayors Judy Abdo and Dennis Zane rushed toward the dais waving time-out signals to no avail.

Realizing the motion had no chance of passing because of Rosenstein's opposition, O'Connor voted against her political allies and joined Rosenstein and Councilman Robert Holbrook, who, at the last minute changed his vote. This parliamentary maneuver assured that O'Connor would be on the winning side, allowing her to bring the motion back for reconsideration next week.

The votes came after more than 40 parents and community leaders urged the council to follow staff recommendation and allocate $1.9 million for programs from kindergarten through the 12th grade and $200,000 for child care programs.

"The community has spoken," parent Sheila Foresander told the council. "We need these programs. Not one single program needs to be cut. We are counting on you to come through with the money."

Many parents pleaded with the council to watch how the money would be spent.

"When you give the money to the district, I ask you to ask what it will be spent on," said John Petz, a parent activist. Petz insisted that "the school district be accountable for every penny the school district spends."