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The East Palo Alto City Council is moving forward with its Residential Permit Parking Program Ordinance, a plan to create timed parking zones across the city and limit on-street parking.
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, the council voted 3-0 to alter then approve the plan, which has been in the works for several years. While some residents were apprehensive about the changing laws, many called for the implementation of the ordinance, complaining of constant double parking, blocked driveways, hazardous driving conditions and homeowners with multiple non-operational cars.
Before changes were made to the ordinance at Tuesday’s meeting, the plan allowed both residents and city council members to initiate parking restrictions through multi-step processes.
But Mayor Martha Barragan, Vice Mayor Mark Dinan and council member Webster Lincoln agreed that this procedure was too complicated, and struck the resident-led application from the ordinance, instead pushing the council to take more initiative in addressing parking issues.
“City council needs to show leadership on this, and say we’re tackling this,” Dinan said at the meeting. “If you have a problem with it, it’s coming from the city, not your neighbors.”
Remaining council members Ruben Abrica and Carlos Romero were not present at the meeting.
Now, if the city council wants to create a parking permit zone, it can initiate the process by locating a neighborhood with on-street parking at least 75% full during peak hours, work with the city’s Department of Public Works to designate scope and area, then provide outreach to the affected neighborhoods, according to Michelle Hunt, vice president of Hexagon Transportation Consultants..
Only one parking permit can be given to each passenger vehicle, and commercial vehicles, boats, trucks, RVs, taxis or oversized vehicles are not eligible for permits. The amount of permits per household will be dependent on available street parking in the area and household sizes.
Originally, the ordinance called for giving residents at least one free permit, but council members Dinan and Lincoln amended the plan to make residents pay a “reasonable” fee for each permit.
Dinan would be interested in introducing free permits for low-income residents in the future, he told this publication, and he hopes excess money generated from permits could be used for street beautification.
“The fees would help cover enforcing the ordinance,” Lincoln said at the meeting, adding that the cost could mirror those of nearby jurisdictions.
Private service providers like caregivers may also be eligible to receive an annual parking permit and each household will receive up to 20 single-day guest permits per year. Still, permits do not allow people to park in red zones, loading areas, in metered parking or any longer than the 72-hour city limit.
Government vehicles, utility vans, emergency responders and cars using disability placards in dedicated accesible spaces will all be exempt from permit restrictions.
Parking permit time restrictions will differ in each neighborhood, depending on local issues, Hunt said – some could be all week, at night from midnight to 5 a.m., and others could be during business hours on weekdays, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The city is also investigating enforcement methods – which many residents believe is of utmost concern – like hiring more city personnel, more community service officers or contracting out to a private party to ensure residents and visitors alike are complying with the new rules.
“My personal main concern is my safety,” said University Village resident Cheryl Arnold, who “fundamentally” agreed with the permit plan. “Due to overcrowding of vehicles and large commercial trucks on my street, I need to see through vehicles in order to exit my driveway, and I have been narrowly missed by cars coming down my street more times than I can count.”
While most speakers were in favor of the ordinance at Tuesday’s meeting, other residents took to Facebook, criticizing the plan.
“Parking permits isn’t a long term solution, rather a tactic to profit. Many residents from East Palo Alto aren’t home owners. They either rent a room or live on an ADU. They city knows this so how is this a long term solution?” one user wrote on Facebook.
With amendments striking resident survey procedures, adding permit fees and prohibiting “delinquent” vehicles from obtaining permits, as suggested by Lincoln, the ordinance was approved in its first appearance in front of city council.
Staff will present a second reading of the ordinance to city council in early May, then, if approved again, the city will conduct a fee study to begin moving toward implementation.
