The Anaheim City Council will consider overhauling its permit parking program at its March 27 meeting, a move aimed at alleviating parking problems in crowded residential neighborhoods.
For years the city has heard complaints from homeowners and apartment dwellers of scarce parking in their neighborhoods, generating illegal parking problems in alleys, excessive trash and fueling disputes between neighbors.
Until last year, when all petitions for new permit parking zones were put on hold, the city managed requests for permit parking street-by-street, with no broader plan for how to handle the problem city-wide.
In some neighborhoods, especially those near apartment complexes with inadequate parking, that policy caused cars to spillover from one street to another as each street in a neighborhood converted to permit-only.
The new plan would make all city public streets eligible for permit-only parking, and create larger parking districts to prevent the spillover problem.
The proposed program also includes a “Good Neighbor” policy that requires permit holders to abide by a set of rules, such as prohibitions on blocking driveways and trash cans, and requirements that permit holders be considerate and courteous to each other and the surrounding neighborhood.
Each parking permit will cost $30 and last two years, after which the permit will need to be renewed. Each household can purchases up to 100 guest permits each calendar year for $1 each.
The process to petition for permit-parking also has been streamlined in response to complaints from residents that the process is too expensive and takes too long.
A $500 application fee is required with each petition, to offset the city’s costs for processing the petition. The cost is meant to be shared among households in the petition area, according to a staff report.
That fee will be reduced in some cases to no more than $50 per household, to address smaller petition areas (for example, a street with six homes would pay a $300 fee).
The city will no longer require petitioners to hold a neighborhood meeting to discuss a transition to permit parking, a requirement that typically added an extra month to the petition review process.
And rather than requiring each petition for a permit district go to the City Council for approval, the Public Works Department will be given authority to administer the program themselves.
The draft plan includes a number of changes:
- Permits will be issued to each household based on the number of bedrooms: 1 permit for 0-2 bedrooms; 2 permits for 3-4 bedrooms; 3 permits for 5 or more bedrooms
- Grandfather in all existing permit parking districts, as of April 10, 2018
- Homeowners will be required to demonstrate they are using all available on-site parking, such as garages and driveway space, before they can receive a permit
- Apartment property owners will be required to demonstrate that all leases require the use of garages and on-site parking for an operable vehicle. If property owners fail to ensure compliance, the entire property and all tenants could lose the ability to get a street permit.
- Prohibit the parking of oversized vehicles (longer than 22 feet, wider than 7 feet and taller than 7 feet) on public streets
- Prohibit parking “for sale” cars on certain city streets
- Create a process to revoke parking permits if the permit holder violates the municipal code, vehicle code or the permit parking ordinance
Read a full summary of the program here.
Contact Thy Vo at tvo@voiceofoc.org or follow her on Twitter @thyanhvo.