Solutions to Spillover Parking

We’ve been looking at the problem of “spillover parking” which is not unique to Lake Forest. Other cities have this problem and have addressed it in a meaningful way. City of Santa Cruz, Boulder, Newport Beach, Portland , etc. Hopefully we can too.

Yesterday I listed a series of contributing factors which lead to the “spillover” parking problem. Today I want to see what we can do to mitigate each of these factors.

GARAGES

• · Garages being used for storage – City has the ability to control this through ordinance.
• · Garages being used for additional living area - City has the ability to control this through ordinance.
• · Garages being used for rental unit - City has the ability to control this through ordinance.
• · Unregistered vehicles stored in driveways - City has the ability to control this through ordinance.
• · Homes with too much stuff –

DENSITY

• · People owning an “extra car” –
• · People renting out a room –
• · Families moving in together –
• · Presence of sober living homes –

STREET PARKING

• · Regulating the way HOAs and Apartment complexes use their on-site parking accommodations –
• · People buying longer and longer cars –
• · Creating more parking lots for City parks – under the City’s control.
• · Creating more parking lots for schools – under SVUSD control
• · Home businesses - City has the ability to control this through ordinance.
• · AirBnB - City has the ability to control this through ordinance.

MISCELLANEOUS

• · Not allowing tandem garages - City has the ability to control this through ordinance.
• · Increasing vehicle parking areas for new construction - City has the ability to control this through regulation.

Looking at the list, many of the sources of the spillover problem cannot be addressed by the City, but many can. Some ordinances are already in place but they are not adequately enforced, partly because they might not be popular. Other ordinances would have to be created, and they might not be popular either. None of us like it when Government intrudes on what we can do.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Behind all of these issues is the lack of adequate public transport which is one of the reasons why so many people depend on their cars. As poor as our existing public transport system is, we recently were cut back even further by the elimination of one of our bus routes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on August 13 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.