Venice residents support overnight parking restrictions

Venice residents turned out in force Saturday to affirm their support for overnight parking districts, or OPDs. This being Venice, however, the Venice Neighborhood Council election naturally sparked controversy.

By limiting overnight parking, proponents hope to curtail the number of people living in cars and recreational vehicles on the community's streets. The problem has grown in magnitude over the last few years, and many local residents say they are fed up with seeing decrepit campers and other vehicles.

They have been campaigning for years to win restricted parking in their neighborhoods. Residents stood in line for an hour or more to vote, and many left without casting a ballot because they ran out of time.

The line, according to many there, wrapped around the Venice library and stretched to the end of the parking lot on Venice Boulevard. The crowds persisted most of the day.

All told, more than 1,500 people -- a record turnout for a Venice Neighborhood Council election -- voted on two initiatives. Initiative A would have rescinded the Venice Neighborhood Council board's approval of OPDs. It failed, by a vote of 868 against to 634 in favor, with nine abstentions.

Initiative B affirmed that Venice residents have the right to establish OPDs for their blocks. That passed, with a vote of 891 in favor, 608 against and 13 abstentions.

The big problems started when volunteers unsealed the ballot boxes and began to count votes. Ivan Spiegel, the chairman of the council's election committee, decided there were too many ballots to count that night before the library's 6 p.m. closing. One polling place volunteer (who happened to be anti-OPD) and a pro-OPD activist objected to halting the counting.

But the ballots were put back into boxes and resealed, with representatives from each side signing the tape to ensure that they would not be improperly opened.

Volunteers reconvened Sunday in a community room at a public storage facility to tally the votes, and the results were issued Sunday afternoon on the neighborhood council's website.

It was a victory for pro-OPD forces, to be sure, but the battle is far from won.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl's office supports the OPDs, and the Los Angeles City Council has approved them. But a handful of residents appealed to the California Coastal Commission, which has jurisdiction over areas of Venice closest to the beach. The commission indicated it wants to take a closer look at overnight parking districts and their implications. Because the commission is charged with maintaining the public's access to the coast, it wants to be sure there is enough early morning parking to accommodate fishermen, joggers, surfers and others.

The panel is expected to take up the matter again in June.

"The first petitions for OPDs were signed in the community 12 years ago, and it's clear one can't wait to find a solution to where to put these RV dwellers," said Mark Ryavec, co-chairman of the neighborhood council's "homelessness and vehicular occupation ad hoc committee."

That panel has been scouring the region for possible sites where groups of RVs could park without disturbing neighborhoods.

"It's a difficult challenge," he added. "I'm encouraged by the vote and am cautiously optimistic that eventually the community will be able to improve their quality of life."

-- Martha Groves

Photo: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

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Comments

[Paul Troon]

These campers have been violating an existing LA city law against overnight camping on city streets which seems to only be enforced in Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. Why can't Venice residents have the same basic protections against people sleeping in RVs that other parts of the city enjoy? These RVs do not have sewer hookups; their excrement ends up in plastic jugs that end up in the gutter. I've seen them do their morning dump and it's not pretty.
-- Paul

[tom schnabel]

it's heartening to see that Venice residents and homeowners are finally getting closer to the permit parking they so badly need and finally catching up with the many other coastal communities that have enjoyed the protection of permit parking for years.

[Joe]

These folks also cause local traffic problems - their oversized rigs parked on smaller surface streets (Beethoven comes to mind) slow down and back up traffic as cars have to pause or slow down when encountering oncoming traffic.

And, I've seen these guys parked at handicap spots for weeks on end. Not sure that's the purpose of handicap parking.

[wendyprofit]

This is an outrage. They should have never left the building of the original voting place once the seal was broken. What an embarrassment. This is a pathetic display of irresponsibility on the part of our neighborhood council. I will be damned if I let my neighborhood do to me what the Bush Administration did two elections in a row. I am thoroughly disgusted.

If you want to deal with the RV situation, blanketing our entire neighborhood in paid parking permit signs and taxing everyone from here to eternity, is NOT the answer. Please try to address the issue in a more thoughtful way. The City of Los Angeles is using you and this argument about RVs to profit immensely. Shame.

[John Wilson]

I live on a sidewalk street in Venice - and have for the last ten years. Parking in Venice has worsened through the years, and at peak times it can take up to 30 minutes to find a parking spot that is 4-5 blocks away. How is it that Santa Monica's beach residents can have permit parking and Venetians can't - are the Santa Monica streets exempt from the California Coastal Commission's oversight?

Another option, let anyone who resides within the first block or two of the beach park for free in the beach lots.

[Carly Mills]

I am very disapointed in this "new breed" of Venetians! I have lived in Venice my entire life, (since 1975) and I think the number of residents living in thier RV's has greatly decreased since the 90's. These transients are not criminals, infact I know more criminals that live in Venice with addresses. The problem is not the parking!!! Imagine, most of these people will now have thier homes towed with all thier possessions...and all that will be left is people. PEOPLE with no homes. The real issue to be addressed is how to HELP these people. NOT WHERE THEY SHOULD PARK! How very "unVenetian" to treat people this way. I personally find my new neighbors more distasteful than the homeless people I know and love! I am saddened to be recognized as a part of a group that is so very selfish!

[skill skully]

permit parking in Venice? wow things have really changed. I like it when people move into a community and then want to change it. Sell your car and ride a bike, you'll live longer and be less stressed out. Oh yah you should have seen what Venice was like in the 70's. It was beautiful.

[Ferdinand]

I don't like seeing so many RVs parked in front of my residence. They are unsightly vehicles. A street is not a trailer park. Streets are for parking not for people to park vehicles to live in them.