The City Council will hear a presentation on a staff proposal to increase beach area parking rates on Oct. 9, according to Seal Beach Police Chief Michael Henderson. In related news, current Seal Beach parking permits expire on Oct. 31. (See story, page 3.) The California Coastal Commission requires a coastal development permit (approved by the CCC) to raise parking rates.
The proposal would increase parking rates in the First Street, Eighth Street, and 10th Street lots.
According to a draft of the cover letter to the California Coastal Commission, the city of Seal Beach would increase the rate to $3 an hour and $15 a day.
Chief Henderson told the Citizen-Council Parking Advisory Ad Hoc Committee about the presentation at last week’s Parking Committee meeting. At the time, staff was presenting the Parking Committee with the proposed cover letter to the Coastal Commission.
“This is a parallel initiative to the efforts of the ad hoc committee,” Henderson said.
“It relates specifically to the beach lots,” Henderson said.
“The short version is that we’ve not made timely applications to the Coastal Commission for increases in the beach lots and this coastal development permit letter seeks to achieve that,” Henderson said.
Parking consultant Julie Dixon of Dixon Resources Unlimited said staff worked on the letter.
Committee Member Matthew Terry asked if the rates would be seasonal. He said he goes down there a lot and he observed ebbs and flows.
Terry said if the city were to do paid parking on Main Street, you’d want to have a hierarchy between the lots. Terry said the beach lots are empty quite a lot, especially during the winter season.
Terry asked if this gets approved, would there be any way to reevaluate the rates if the Parking Committee wanted to look at the issue.
Chief Henderson deferred to Julie Dixon as she was expert on the coastal development permit process.
“I won’t go all that way,” Dixon said.
According to Dixon, what Terry was describing is exactly what the Coastal Commission wants to hear.
Dixon said there was an opportunity to establish what the maximum rate is.
Dixon said she was thinking about maybe having a Monday through Friday rate versus a weekend rate.
According to Dixon, you could think about it in different ways and stagger the rates so it would also be a good response, depending on the Coastal Commission’s response to the city.
She said it was an opportunity to ask for the maximum of what the city wants.
She said that could be one of the negotiation tactics, too.
Dixon said she thought Terry was on track.
Rob Jahncke, the Chamber of Commerce-appointed committee member, asked if the beach lots weren’t empty during the fall through early spring.
Dixon suggested mid to late October was when you see the drop off.
“So there’s an opportunity there,” Dixon said.
“I just might suggest that you really think about the weekends versus the weekdays in that kind of non-seasonal aspect of it, too,” Dixon said.
“We also don’t want to forget during the holiday season you have certain events and things like that,” Dixon said.
“You just want to be mindful of keeping the message easy to understand for when and if you’re going to also charge any kind of special event rates or things like that, too,” Dixon said.
“But I think everything you’re asking for is doable,” Dixon said.
According to Dixon, Seal Beach wants to get the rates up to the market standard for Southern California.
Vice Chair Ken Husting, who is the principal transportation engineer/parking administrator for the city of Los Angeles, said in the city of Venice there are different parking rates for the weekend compared to weekday, as well as peak season and off season. Husting ran last week’s meeting at the suggestion of Committee Chair Margo Wheeler. Chair Wheeler was participating remotely from Las Vegas.
Husting said he thought Seal Beach should follow suit, assuming the Parking Committee and the City Council agree.
Jahncke said he thought it was a great idea, citing the potential for employee parking. He said during the winter is when people want to be in front of the shops. According to Jahncke, the walk for employees who will be in a shop for five, eight, or 10 hours is unreasonable.
Several committee members agreed.
Committee Member Tim Rathmann suggested increase parking rates for oil crews who use the boat launch.
“It will most likely come up, so it’s good to have it on the agenda,” Dixon said.
Terry said he was on the beach recently. He used the kiosk around 6:30 p.m., and noticed that there was an evening rate. Terry said he didn’t know there was an evening rate. He noticed that was not in the package.
Dixon said the intention was to get the daily maximum increase.
According to Dixon, the city needs the Coastal Commission to say what the threshold is.
Husting said that given that the Coastal Commission can take months, or years, that the committee tackle that later.
