Bayside Officials Weigh in on Parking

By Jorge Casuso

March 28 –- City officials should put plans for a Downtown shuttle on the fast track and make sure there is ample replacement parking when the public structures are taken off line.

Those were among the key recommendations at a meeting last week of the Bayside Board that focused on Downtown parking, a thorny issue addressed in an ambitious $92.5 million plan to add 1,712 new spaces Downtown over the next decade.

A draft Environmental Impact Report for the plan, as well as more than half a dozen alternatives, will be released in June and will reach the City Council in September, before funding is firmed up.

But while the plan -– approved by the council three years ago -– is starting to move forward, Bayside officials worry its implementation could add to the Downtown parking woes, especially if Santa Monica Place, with its 2,000 spaces, is redeveloped.

“This is a very serious issue that needs to be thought through,” said Kathleen Rawson, executive director of the Bayside District Corporation, which runs the Downtown.

Before the six public parking structures on 2nd and 4th streets are retrofitted or torn down, the City will have added 500 new spaces at the Main Library, which is nearing completion on Sixth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, City officials said.

Another 800 spaces will be added in the new Civic Center parking structure slated to be completed in the summer of 2006, City officials said.

“The two structures are coming on line to take the brunt of the parking losses,” Assistant City Manager Gordon Anderson told the board.

While the Civic Center structure will alleviate the Bayside parking crunch, it will serve more than Downtown visitors, Gordon said.

“The Civic Center structure is being built as a source of parking for Downtown,” Anderson said. “But it’s safe to say probably what will happen is there will probably (be) a lot of in-and-out parkers coming to City Hall and the Court house.”

In addition to retrofitting or replacing the Downtown structures –- which City officials said are “antiquated” and “not pedestrian friendly” -- the City’s parking plan calls for purchasing land for new structures.

These will likely be on the outskirts of the Downtown core and could be used by low-wage employees who currently compete with visitors for prime parking spaces.

The plan, said Planning Director Suzanne Frick, will “shift long-term parkers out of the structures so they can be used by visitors and customers.”

Low-wage workers Downtown currently go to great lengths to avoid paying the $7-a-day parking fee, with many of them opting to leave and reenter the public structures before the two hours of free parking are up, Bayside representatives said.

"Every few hours shuffling from structure to structure is what really slows traffic down," said Bayside consultant Robert O. York.

While the more remote structures could be used by some of the workers, Bayside officials worried that motorists may stay away from parking structures outside the Downtown core –- including those at the Civic Center and Main Library –- unless the City provides a shuttle service.

"A structure at the library doesn't seem so inconvenient," said Bayside Board member John Warfel. "If you throw in a tram on top of that, it really starts to work."

“We hear what you say about the tram system,” Anderson said. “We’re thinking about integrating it now.”

But Warfel warned that the City needed to act quickly if the tram was to be on line by December, when the new Main Library is slated to open.

“I don’t see us getting from ‘a’ to ‘b’ that quickly,” Warfel said.

“We’ll talk to the Big Blue Bus staff to identify a shuttle service that can flow through the Downtown,” Anderson said, adding that monthly parking passes will be available for use at the library lot.

In addition to adding new spaces, Bayside officials called on the City to explore ways to keep the parking structures of large office buildings open to the public after hours, a Coastal Commission requirement that is not being enforced.

“We may be able to call attention to the Coastal Commission that there could be more enforcement,” said City Council member Ken Genser, a liaison to the Bayside Board.

Bayside officials warned that keeping the private structures open would not get a good reception from property owners, who would see more wear and tear on their lobbies and need to hire after-hour guards.

Bayside officials also called on the City to move forward with plans to improve signage directing motorists to available parking.

“Electronic signs in parking structures are supposed to be in by now, and they’re not,” Warfel said. “It will take a year. It seems like signage and wayfinding has fallen into an abyss we can’t get out of.”

City parking officials said that spaces have become easier to find.

“Today, you’re probably more likely to find a space,” said Lucy Dyke, the City’s top parking official. “We’re not getting the level of complaints from people who can’t find a space.”