Seal Beach is moving to a license plate-based parking permit system, according to Julie Dixon, president of Dixon Resources Unlimited. Dixon spoke during last Thursday’s town hall meeting on parking.
In related news, the city’s parking consultant said the city would be looking at proposed changes to the city’s Municipal Code.
Dixon said the city had approved the purchase of three Ford Escapes that are being outfitted with license-plate reading technology.
Seal Beach Police Commander Steve Bowles told the Sun that “the parking vehicles should be deployed mid-July.”
According to Dixon, the license plate recognition technology has an “auto-chalk” feature that would document the location of parked cars so police would no longer need to physically chalk cars.
Dixon also said the system would allow the police to identify cars that were reported stolen.
Bowles told the audience at last week’s town hall that the police would go from business to business to let them know about the transition to license plate recognition parking enforcement.
He also warned the audience that they should not be surprised to see parking enforecment officers working at 10 p.m.
In early May 2018, Seal Beach launched the mobile PassportParking® app.
Dixon also discussed proposed changes to the municipal code, which would include:
• requiring that cars parked in time-limited locations move their cars a minimum of 150 feet
• requiring cars in loading zones to be actively loading
• requiring users of electric vehicle spaces to be actively charging the vehicles.
Dixon said some communities mandate that visitor parking must be linked to an actual license plate, but Seal Beach was not there yet.
Dixon Resources Unlimited is also looking at adding more blocks with timed parking, and expanding First Street parking near the Eaves.
Michelle Marquez, senior accounting technician for Seal Beach, said sales of guest passes have gone down.
Dixon said residents are limited to two guest passes. She also said
Seal Beach resident Mark Loopesko asked how many parking permits had been sold to people who don’t live in the Old Town area.
Marquez said only Old Town permits had been entered in the database. She said less than 50 people outside of Old Town buy permits.
In response to comments from the public about parking issues, Commander Bowles said there were two taboos in town—meeters on Main Street and parking inspections.
According to Bowles, when people in Belmont Shore sell their homes, their garage is inspected.
Several people brought up the potential parking impact of a recently proposed market on the 200 block of Main Street.
Bowles said that was a separate issue from the town hall meeting.
The city was expected to decide whether to approve a permit for the proposed market this week.
City officials have been talking about bringing license plate reading technology to Seal Beach since at least July 2016.
The year before that, the city tried electronic parking permits in plastic tags that could be hung inside cars.
