City Council restricts Cornell Drive parking
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Deirdre Newman
Jude Sturman is fed up with cars parking in front of the fire hydrant
on Cornell Drive.
Tom Phelan, another Cornell Drive resident, is tired of coming
home at 2 a.m. finding people parked in front of his driveway, and
John Cardos has seen people change their oil in front of his house.
These three and other residents of Cornell Drive brought their
complaints to the City Council on Monday. After hearing all of their
concerns, council members voted unanimously to place a resident-only
parking restriction on Cornell Drive between Wilson and Joann
streets.
“We’re thankful because now we don’t have to put trash cans in
front of our houses to protect our parking spots,” resident Tanya
Crabbe said.
The council also asked staff members to find out what kind of
restrictions it can make on multifamily units such as mobile home
parks and apartments. Cornell Drive residents mainly blamed residents
of the Costa Mesa Mobile Estates on Wilson Street for causing the
parking problem.
Other residential areas of the city have been plagued by a rash of
nonresident parking in the past year as well.
“There must be something fundamentally at issue with our parking
regulations that we have so many issues,” Councilwoman Libby Cowan
said.
Fourteen homeowners in the 2200 block of Cornell Drive petitioned
the city to add the resident-only restriction. Their primary concern
was safety, Crabbe said.
“We have children, and they couldn’t even play on the street with
all the cars going up and down,” Crabbe said.
Transportation Services Division staff members conducted license
plate surveys, which found that during the most congested period --
Friday nights at 8:45 p.m. -- nonresident vehicles took up about 52%
of the available parking spaces.
Staff members also found that there has been an extreme shortage
of parking for the mobile home park’s residents for at least 15
years. The layout of the park doesn’t allow for any additional
spaces.
“In the past 15 years, the situation has been horrific,” Cornell
Drive resident Don Bendz said. “[Nonresidents] have the system beat.
If we move our vehicles just to go around the corner, that spot will
be taken.”
Council members sympathized with residents and agreed that
resident-only restrictions would help alleviate the problem.
“I fully appreciate your concerns,” Councilman Allan Mansoor said.
“I have seen a lot of the same ones in my neighborhood.”
The new restriction means that signs will be posted limited
parking to cars displaying a valid permit. Letters will go out today
to residents letting them know that permits are available at City
Hall, and signs will be posted the week of Feb. 2, said Armando
Rutledge, assistant engineer.
Transportation Services staff members will meet with Development
Services staff members to examine what other restrictions might be
placed on parking for multifamily units, Rutledge added.
Assistant Development Services Director Perry Valantine said the
city has significantly upped its parking requirements over the last
30 years.
“Over the years, we have increased our multifamily unit parking
requirements as a result of concerns about excess on-street parking,
largely because of concerns on the Eastside,” Valantine said. “Most
of that is older developments that were built under earlier
standards.”
If city leaders decide that present parking requirements aren’t
enough, they could be increased, but only for future development,
Valantine said.
Other residential areas have also looked to city leaders for
relief from their parking woes.
In February 2003, fed-up residents in the areas around Elm
Avenue-Lemon Street and Tanager Drive near Tanager Park convinced the
council to place resident-only restrictions in their neighborhoods.
Residents on Manistee Drive didn’t fare so well. They complained
to city leaders about the parking problem on their street getting
worse, casting some of the blame on the Park Mesa Village apartment
complex. The council then approved a request from Park Mesa Village
owners to reduce the complex’s parking by 10 spaces.
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