Councilwoman Deaton on parking meeting
Thank you to all who came to the recent meeting, called or wrote e-mails about your opinions, concerns and solutions to the parking problems which have come about as a result of the 63-plus parking spaces which were eliminated by painting so many of our curbs red to accommodate emergency vehicles and in front of the storm drain catch basins.
Many of you wrote and asked to keep the parking along Electric to facilitate the parking on the east side of town.  While parking along the Greenbelt was an easy fix to add parking, many residents were in emphatic opposition to crowding our narrow street, eliminating the open space feel, taking away the charm of the area, and introducing liability issues to the city.
Therefore at tonight’s meeting we, as neighbors, set about to problem solve how to help remedy the shortfall of parking through other solutions.
Here is what came out of our meeting:
- The temporary construction signs allowing for parking next to the Greenbelt will be removed tomorrow morning.
The City Council just received the storm drain project as complete last Monday night and the construction signs will be taken down and parking will no longer be allowed along the Greenbelt.
- The Public Works Department will remove the red curbs around the storm drain catch basins by Aug. 1.
This will free up approximately 20 parking spots.
- The Police Department will enforce the current parking restrictions on all Old Town streets to insure that those streets with one-hour parking are properly moni-tored and that the 72 hour maximum time for any vehicle to be parked on a street is also enforced.
- Dedicated bike lanes will be painted along the Greenbelt side of Electric Avenue for the safe passage of bicycles and so cars can safely travel in their own lane.
- The Seal Beach Police Department is working on allowing a resident-only, overnight, parking with a sticker in the 10th Street beach parking lot so every resident can find an overnight spot to park.
- The city will proceed to ask the Coastal Commission for resident parking stickers for the streets north of Electric and for Electric itself just as the rest of Old Town has (one side of the street will be all day parking, the other side will be 1 hour parking only unless you have a resident sticker.)
It has not yet been determined if this will be for overnight parking only or if it will be for day use as the rest of Old Town is.
- The city will evaluate the rest of the suggestions submitted at tonight’s meeting to see which would help our parking problems the most.
- The staff will present these solutions and any others staff feels could be implemented to the City Council for their approval.  The date for the permit parking to come to council is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 26 to give staff and the police department the time to get stickers made up and to find out what approvals they will need before proceeding.
There were three themes to the letters and calls I received:  those who wanted no parking along the Greenbelt, those who wanted parking along the Greenbelt, and those who wanted to problem solve ways to find more parking and had no strong feelings about the Greenbelt.  Regardless of which side you were on, I hope the outcome of this meeting will help you find more parking on the east side of Old Town while allowing you to enjoy the green open space provided by those who have gone before us.
Ellery Deaton
Seal Beach
