ENCINITAS — The city’s Mobility and Traffic Safety Commission met on March 11 to hear from the community as part of a third-party study to provide clear guidelines for establishing new permit parking zones and their operation throughout the city.
During the meeting, the first of two planned community-involved meetings, Dixon Resources Unlimited, a municipal parking and transportation consultant, introduced a new permit parking study that has been underway since January.
According to Dixon, the firm plans to review existing municipal codes for future developments, draft recommendations for the parking permit program based on community feedback, and present its findings to update the municipal code on establishing permit parking zones to the Encinitas City Council in June 2024.
“We’re also going to launch a citywide survey that should hopefully be out to the public within the next week,” said Dixon associate Ben Verdugo. “We understand that density is going to be coming on board here fairly soon over the next few years in the city. With increased density comes increased traffic and parking. So we’re going to definitely be aware of that when we put this (study) together for the city.”
The consulting firm and commission also heard from residents, who voiced concerns and suggested improvements, including more parking enforcement. The city launched the permit parking program in June 2023 in response to numerous complaints from residents living on Via Molena and the surrounding neighborhoods.
The complaints stem from reports of overoccupancy at The Resort at Encinitas Luxury Apartments, located at 1320 Via Terrassa. When a new management company at The Resort started charging a $25 parking fee per spot, residents and tenants began looking for free street parking along the nearby streets of Via Molena, Via Tavira, Via Sarasan, Via Palacio, and Via Villena.
Tenants looking to avoid additional parking costs have caused issues with the residents of those neighborhoods.
“We have lived in an apartment complex for over 30 years without problems. And all of a sudden, about two years ago, everyone began to park on our streets at all hours of the night,” resident David Stegman said. “The source of our problem is the chronic overoccupancy at The Resort.”
In response, the council established a permit parking zone in the Via Molena area in June 2023.
Under the program, each resident living on Via Tavira, Via Sarasan, Via Palacio, Via Villena, Via Terrassa, Via Solaro, and Via Morella received one “resident” permit for each vehicle for a fee of $5 each. Residents also have the opportunity to purchase up to three “visitor” permits.
However, homeowners like resident Michael Macau have not seen an improvement in the parking situation since the program was launched, citing “little to no enforcement” in the permit parking zone. Macau said he has frequently observed, “cars parked for several days, and then the owner comes, removes the car, another car parks in its place and trades the parking pass.”
A parking project kickoff was held on Jan. 8, 2024, and onsite assessments of parking zones and residential parking permit zones have been completed, according to a project overview from the city.
Residents can inquire about the permit parking program study by contacting [email protected].
