Orange residents living near Canal Street may have an easier time petitioning elected leaders to implement a permit parking zone in the neighborhood after city officials banned parking on that road, potentially crowding nearby residential streets.
It comes after a portion of Canal Street was marked as a “no parking” zone, and city staff saw potential concern of cars into nearby residential streets instead.
While many residents mentioned during public comment at the Oct. 27 city council meeting that they liked having the option to introduce permits, others asked city staff to look at the root cause of why people are parking in the area and how to prevent it without taking away resident use of the street.
“Imagine a neighborhood trying to protect a shared space that residents have always enjoyed freely. Someone proposes putting a locked gate around it. The gate might keep outsiders out, but now residents need a key to access something they’ve always had the freedom to use,” said Erika de Vries, a resident, at the Oct. 27 city council meeting.
“Shouldn’t we first ask why outsiders would be taking over that space and whether we can prevent it from happening?”
It’s not an issue that’s unique to Orange.
Residents in parts of North and Central OC have long struggled to find and secure parking after coming back from work and as officials in neighboring Santa Ana discuss the results of the citywide parking study and update their nearly 40-year-old parking permit program.
Last month, Orange City Council members voted unanimously to establish a “Permit Parking Opportunity Area” between Heim Avenue to the north, Shaffer Street to the west, Cumberland Road to the south and Canal Street to the east.
Creation of the opportunity zone lessens the threshold for nearby residents to petition city leaders for a parking permit and waives the application fee.
Mayor Dan Slater, who ran for reelection, said the approval of the zone would not implement permit parking, but allow for residents to decide whether they want it in the future, but with reduced fees and support required.
“For clarification, tonight we are not considering installing permit parking. I want to make sure that’s clear. That’s a whole other issue that can be pursued, should it be necessary,” said Slater at the Oct. 27 meeting.
“Tonight we’re just giving the neighbors an opportunity, if they should want to pursue permit parking, then it would be done much easier and cheaper than would be required for other neighborhoods.”
Establishing the opportunity area means residents would not have to pay an application fee and only need to garner support from 55% of the neighbors, block-by-block, instead of the usual 75% threshold. It would also remove the necessity for a parking study.
The potential permit parking area comes after the city’s traffic committee voted to implement a “no parking” zone along Canal Street, between Meats Avenue and Glendora Street because non-residents were parking in the area.
City officials anticipate the new parking restrictions will lead to more cars parking on nearby residential streets.
“While this restriction was initiated in response to resident concerns, parking displacement into the adjacent neighborhood is a potential unintended consequence,” the staff report from the Oct. 27 meeting reads.
The program is also being introduced ahead of development at the Village at Orange site to prevent construction workers and visitors from parking on residential streets.
The permit opportunity zone is permanent, allowing residents to petition for permit parking at any time, even once the mall is built out.
