OCEANSIDE — After residents’ complaints of noise, trash and lack of curbside room to put out trash cans for weekly pickup, Costa Serena neighborhood streets are one step closer to requiring an 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. parking permit.
The Planning Commission on Dec. 4 unanimously recommended preferential parking permits for Anchor Circle, Navigator Circle, Peal Lane, Lile Street, Gail Drive and North Way, which are impacted by apartment over-parking.
Permits will cost homeowners $15 annually and include overnight guest passes.
Residents who park in their garage or driveway pay no fee.
Apartment residents are not eligible to purchase a permit.
Eighty percent of Costa Serena residents signed a petition in support of parking permits.
Homeowners at the meeting were evenly split between being in favor of and against the permit requirement.
Objections to parking permits included the cost to homeowners on a fixed income and inconvenience to overnight guests.
“Neighbors that signed the petition didn’t know they have to pay to park in the street in front of their house,” Charles Simonson, an Oceanside resident, said. “Consider seniors that are very low income.”
Residents also objected to shouldering the responsibility to resolve a parking issue that all agree is caused by the neighboring Ocean Vista Apartments.
Teala Cotter, city associate traffic engineer, said the apartment complex meets city parking requirements.
Apartment residents have one parking space for each bedroom in their unit. There are also a number of pay parking spaces within the complex residents can rent.
Beyond that cars park on adjacent streets.
Oceanside resident Don Herron said neighborhood parking problems began early last year when apartment residents started to be charged to use extra parking spaces within the complex.
He said he routinely sees 30 to 40 cars parked on streets near the apartments.
“They leave trash, food, beer cans,” Herron said. “Greasy car parts go in our yards. Every night is a Friday night.”
City staff confirmed the problem and reported an increase in vehicle break-ins, mailboxes blocked causing mail to not be delivered, trash left behind and vehicle work done on the street.
The city adopted parking permit regulations for the impacted neighborhood in 2005, and set a $15 yearly fee to cover signage and program costs.
The Loma Alta neighborhood requires parking permits because it too is impacted by apartment over-parking. Residents located closest to the apartments requested permits to curb the problem. A few years later, neighbors on adjacent blocks also requested permits as the problem moved further down the road.
Commission Chair John Scrivener and Commissioner Claudia Troisi both discussed the probability of the same situation happening in Costa Serena.
Troisi suggested the apartment owner take more responsibility and come up with a work plan to manage parking.
Scrivener said the parking problem should be looked at further.
“I think we’ve got a problem here that’s going to keep growing,” Scrivener said.
City staff reported they are prepared to address over-parking on adjacent streets if needed.
City Council will vote on Costa Serena parking permits in January.
1 comment
Loma Alta does not have parking permits. Loma Alta Mission Park over by Mesa does.
Comments are closed.