"Spillover" Parking in Lake Forest

(I posted a preliminary article last week about the parking problem in Lake Forest, and there followed a stimulating interaction on Lake Forest Town Square. As a result I’ve revised the article, extended it and created two part parts – (1) discussion of the sources of the problem and (2) possible solutions. The topic itself is on the agenda for this week thanks to the second I received from Councilman Nick.)

More than a year ago I argued for a Traffic Commission and one of the things I wanted the Commission to address was the parking problems in the City. Three of my colleagues (Voigts, Hamilton, Robinson) didn’t want a Commission, but I managed to get an “Advisory Group” approved, but the 3 of them didn’t want the Group looking at parking, so the problem never got addressed.

Parking is a major problem in the City, but normally it gets thrown in there with traffic, and since traffic is an even bigger problem, parking is the Rodney Dangerfield of City concerns.

Now it turns out we are being forced to address the parking problem, given the results of a recent court case which brings to question some of the ways the City has been going about giving out permits. But it shouldn’t take a court case to underscore the parking problem. Every year, for the past several years, people from neighborhoods like Bennett Ranch and the Beach and Tennis Club have been asking the City to issue parking permits which restricts the use of the public streets. Usually (but not always) the requests come from people in single family residences (SFR) who believe the parking spaces on their block are being taken over by people who live in nearby multi-family dwellings (e.g., apartment complexes). In addition to the complaint about the intrusion this overspill crates, they sometimes report an increased in noise, and increase in litter , and an increase in crime.

No one has a right to the exclusive use of public streets, and by extension, no home owner has the right to have the parking space in front of their home reserved exclusively for their use. Of course everyone wants to park as close as they can to their home, but it isn’t an inalienable right.

So why are so many people complaining?

There are several factors that contribute to the perceived shortage of parking. In this article I’ll describe them and tomorrow we’ll look at some solutions.

GARAGES NOT USED FOR CARS

In those areas where people are complaining about lack of parking spaces on the public streets, most of the garages have at least one space being used for storage. Some have both spaces used for storage. In addition, in other places spaces in the driveways are being used by RVs and boats. The result is that a SFR that should have 4 off-street parking spaces available often has only half as many, and this creates a shortage of parking spaces because most SFR neighborhoods have driveways that enter/exit from the street, thereby removing space on the street for garage access.

This self-imposed shortage of space comes about for several reasons –

Storage – the costs of storing your household goods has grown over the years, even while the number of storage complexes has grown. Lake Forest has about a dozen self-storage complexes with costs varying from $65 to $105 for a small 5 x 5 unit to $170 to $198 for a 10 x 10 unit. This isn’t cheap. In addition there are the costs of getting the stuff to the storage unit. So people are using their garages because it is more convenient and they save between $700 and $2400 per year. Storage for boats and RVs is more limited and more expensive.

Unregistered Vehicles – In many parts of town, unregistered vehicles are stored in driveways. Because a driveway is private property, there is nothing illegal about doing this, but it’s another reason why street spaces are at a premium.

Stuff – It’s no secret that more and more people have more and more stuff, partially the result of so many cheap goods available at discount stores. More stuff means the need for more space.

Living space: it’s not completely uncommon for people to turn their garages into living spaces. Usually it’s for a play or game room, but in some cases it becomes a rental unit.

AirBnB – Though the short term rentals like Airbnb aren’t very active in Lake Forest they are present. Many of these places keep their garage for storage and the renters are required to use the driveway or streets.

Looking at my own street, nearly half of the garages are used for storage only.

MORE CARS PER HOUSEHOLD

Density – Over the years, the number of people living together has increased. It’s not uncommon to find 3 or 4 adults living in a SFR. Sometimes it is multi-generational with grandparents taking care of grandchildren, but more often it is adult children who are still living at home. Increasingly more common, people rent out a room in their house. So, a SFR that normally would have 2 adults and therefore 2 cars, now has 3 or 4 adults, with 3 or 4 cars.

The extra car – among more affluent households, it’s not uncommon to find a car that is used for special purposes, either the “Sunday sports car” or the “weekend truck” or the “weekend off-road sport vehicle”.

Looking at my own street, nearly half the homes have 3 or more cars and the average number of vehicles per home is 2.3.

Related to the density factor is the growth of “sober living homes” where as many as 6 adults can be living in a SFR along with a set of care-takers. Thus, a SFR can have 8 cars in this scenario. Now imagine the problem when concerned residents/family members come to visit the people living in these homes.

These problems are multi-varied and inter-related, but basically it comes down to more and more people living together with more and more stuff and more than 2 cars in the household.

PARKING REGULATIONS LIMIT OFF-STREET PARKING

Within the City there are various organizations that control the parking within their neighborhood. This is true for HOAs and for Apartment Complexes, and most of Lake Forest is composed of these types of residential arrangements. Very few people in the City live in a SFR that is not controlled by an HOA.

Most of the apartment complexes and HOAs were built many decades ago, and most of the “visitor parking” in these places is severely limited. Without enough spaces inside an apartment complex or an HOA, the residents are forced to go outside their perimeter to seek street parking, and when this happens, they often go into a neighborhood that is also in trouble due to the lack of garage spaces being used for cars.

The City has a done a good job working with HOAs and apartment complexes to get them to alter their regulations to deal with the problem of spillover, but you can’t get blood from a stone. There are some inherent structural problems that won’t be solved without some changes that might entail building more parking spaces, which then brings with it associated costs.

BIGGER CARS TAKE UP MORE SPACE

It’s no secret that the SUV is the best-selling car in the U.S. Go to any shopping center or look on any street and you’ll see that half the vehicles are SUVs, ranging in length to up to 18.6 feet. Trucks commonly used by people are even longer. The best-selling Ford 350, GM Silverado, and Ram 3500 are over 21 feet long!

Almost every household has at least one SUV and/or a truck. Put them on the streets that were designed when the average car was only 15 feet long, and you see the problem.

Looking at my neighborhood nearly half the vehicles are SUVs. Look at the picture accompanying this article, taken on a nearby street, and you’ll see than nearly half the cars are SUVs.

ALTERNATIVE USES FILL UP STREET SPACES

Parks without parking lots: Lake Forest is blessed with 30+ parks, but very few of these parks have “parking lots”. Instead people who want to visit these parks have to park on the streets. For example, here’s a partial list of parks with no parking lots –

· Village Pond Park

· Cavanaugh Park

· Pittsford Park

· El Toro Park

· Alicia Park

· Montbury Park

· Vintage Park

· Regency Park

· Pebble Creek Park

· Cherry Park

· Mountain View Park

This is merely a partial list. The sad fact is that most parks in Lake Forest don’t have separate parking lots, so visitors compete with residents for spaces. Some of these parks (e.g., Cavanaugh, Regency) have adequate street parking that doesn’t impede residences, but others (e.g., Montbury, El Toro) don’t.

Home businesses: Another related problem is the home business. Home businesses have grown enormously. Massage therapists, Clinical Psychologists, Interior Designers, Event Planners, etc. often work from their homes and see clients there. The visitors park on the street, thus reducing the numbers of spaces available for everyone else.

School Events: many of the schools in the City have events but they don’t have sufficient parking lots to accommodate the people, so spillover occurs in residential neighborhoods.

All of these problems (school events, parks without lots and home businesses) generally impact during the day and not late at night. However, they do impact during the crucial 5 pm to 7 pm time period when most people are arriving home and looking for a place to park.

BAD PLANNING FORCES CARS ONTO THE STREET

If you recall, the Planning Commission and the Council recently allowed the tandem garages built in the auto center area to be decreased in size. The decision to allow tandem parking was ridiculous in the first place, but the developers had given over $100,000 to the Council and they got what they wanted. By using tandem garages they got to build more homes, and get more profits. But the effective use of tandem garages is far less than the approved use, so the excess number of cars is forced to the street. Then by decreasing the size of these garages, it will force even more cars onto the street.

The tandem garage problem isn’t the only example of bad planning. New homes are being approved with limited street parking access (parking permitted on only one side of the street).

THE DOMINO EFFECT

Over the past several years the City has issued one or two parking permits per year. In most cases, shortly after a permit is issued, an adjoining area seeks relief because the overflow parking addressed in the first permit now moves into that area, causing a new problem.

CURRENT CITY POLICY

The current City policy includes the following features –

· Review no more than once every 2 years.

· Check to see if parking violations contribute to the problem.

· Check to see if parking restrictions controlled by the City contribute to the problem.

· Collect information about parking (e.g., traffic counts, license plate surveys)

· Consider permit parking if (a) impact 30 or more SFR or 1000 feet, (b) continuous for 6 hours or more, and (c) 67% of people impacted are desirous.

Tomorrow let’s look at some solutions

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.

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