L.A. might allow residents to park in front of their driveways

It’s a situation that many Angelenos have faced: You’re trying to park. It’s your own residential street. Home turf. But there are too many cars, so you end up half-blocking your own driveway. Then you get a ticket.

Reacting to constituents annoyed with that scenario, Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl will bring a motion before the Transportation Committee meeting Tuesday to investigate the viability of allowing residents to park in front of their own driveways.

“Our beach communities especially are so congested year-round,” said Rosendahl, whose district includes the coastal areas of Playa del Rey, Venice and Mar Vista. “But this motion will bring study to a way to increase the residential parking supply.”

The current California Vehicle Code does not allow parking on the street in front of driveways, but does provide an exemption that allows “a local authority” to offer this option through the implementation of a permit process.

Bruce Gillman, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, said that the specifics of such a parking program were unclear since it was so early, but it could resemble the process that exists now for acquiring an overnight or preferential parking permit, including the fee. An annual preferential permit costs $34 and an annual overnight parking permit costs $15.

Currently, a ticket for blocking a driveway will cost the driver $63, according to the Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau.   

The motion will require the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to research and present a report on the costs, benefits and overall viability of such a plan before a public hearing one to three months from now, Rosendahl said. The goal is to get a pilot program up and running by April 1 in Mar Vista “in time for the beginning of summer,” he said.

Rosendahl said that one of his constituents, Julie Inouye of Mar Visa, originally came to him with the idea of on-street parking in front of driveways after enduring a “terrible parking problem in her neighborhood.”

“The pilot program should be in Mar Vista. It’s a smaller community than Venice, and the local leadership – like Inouye – really want it,” he said. 

If successful, the pilot program could be extended to other communities in Los Angeles, he said.

But Gillman said that not all areas of Los Angeles need such a parking program.

“There are so many innocuous ways to say this works for everyone. It doesn’t,” he said. “There are valid safety concerns. And at this point, you don’t want to introduce a program that could drain money.”

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Photo credit: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Astonished]

In the past, it was always my experience that tickets were not written on cars parking across driveways unless the owner of the property called and requested it. In fact the officer had to confirm that the homeowner still wanted the citation written when he arrived at the scene. When did that change?

[Nate]

Why don't they just park ON their driveway???

[waskoma]

Now thats our government, reviewing what the costs will be to let us PARK IN FRONT OF OUR OWN FRIGGIN GARAGE!!~!! AAAAHHHHHH , I HATE THESE PEOPLE SOOOO MUCH, HATE HATE HATE.

[TrueFreedom]

I have an IDEA: quit building high density housing all over the county, and we wouldn't have such congestion. Look at www.scag.ca.gov... cities in LA MUST plan to accommodate (via each city's General Plan) their population increase projections ... of 2.3 MILLION more people in LA... yes, 2.3 MILLION!! You think parking, traffic, pollution and congestion is bad now.. just wait until all this high density housing is built.

[Sydney]

Nate - if they have a short driveway, they could be blocking the sidewalk if they park in their driveway, which is a ticket whether you live there or not. If they have a longer driveway, then I'm going to make the smart assumption that they wouldn't need to be parking on the street.

[Not in LA]

Did you really think that they would build all these subways WITH YOUR MONEY and not let these developers UPZONE the land to reflect MANHATTAN level density and maximize their profits?

All this propaganda about the environment and energy is a cover to increase density and make money for the developers.

And then you'll have a "congestion" tax to "encourage" energy savings.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

[Matthew King]

Nate - Some people's driveways, especially in beach communities, are extremely short or non-existent. If they were to try and park on their driveway they would either be parking across a sidewalk or extending out into the street. The situation they're looking at mostly pertains to those type of communites.

[save the deserts!]

I agree with Nate and TrueFreedom - they act like it is such a mystery why there is not enough parking but they build 3 bedroom condos that cost $650K and allow only 1 parking space as if some loner is gonna live there, never have a guest, or a family or roommates, etc.

Similar with SFRs. They are using their garages for storage, workshops, offices, illegal bedroom conversions, etc. and the 4 cars per house can't fit in a 1-car driveway.

It all comes down to Developer Profits - they want to cram as much "income producing space" as possible on these overpriced postage stamp lots so they can overcharge for a place that is, essentially, unlivable. Time to stop the profiteering, and base building permits on ACTUAL liveability.

[stewart]

I have observed parking across a driveway as a target for enforcement , never have I seen parking enforcement NOT write a ticket for this, ever.

[Fred]

I am sure that the city council has problems parking at their residence and can appreciate the problem

- oh, no they dont, never mind.

[gtoya1331]

I'm sorry; WHY would you need to park IN FRONT of your own driveway?

[Jose]

what is wrong with the picture? how come police vehicle can park freely in front of red curb?

[Thomas K Nagano]

Great way to generate a little more income for the City of Los Angeles, as long as the overhead doesn't get too high. Big penalties for fraud. - TK

[Also...]

They should come test this out in East Hollywood/Silver Lake areas as well.

But I'm also wondering why LA doesn't enforce or create other parking rule to combat these issues:

-Families with 6+ people living in a one-bedroom apartment on a street-parking only street that have 6+ cars and take up many of the free spaces on the street.

-People "saving" parking spots by placing illegals cones/waiting in the spot/calling to tow cars away on a public street

-Residents storing extra cars not on their property/a lot but on street parking spots (This is currently happening on my street in Silver Lake; someone placed a boot on their car and it is inoperable. I have called numerous times for the city to tow it. Never happened.)

-People who PARK POORLY, thereby taking up a spot where 2-3 cars could have fit if the parker pulled up/pulled back.

I think these all should be ticketable offenses. Either that, or high-need street parking residential areas should give residents FREE parking permits based on how many bedrooms in the household. (ie: Two adults living in a two bedroom receive TWO PARKING PERMITS. A family of 4 living in a one bedroom should only get ONE PARKING PERMIT.)

[LAofAnaheim]

Increased parking convenience = less need for public transportation. And you wonder why Angelenos don't take public transit... (this is just one of many reasons)

[LAofAnaheim]

Do you all understand that the reason there's significant traffic in LA is because we keep promoting auto-oriented policies like more parking? It's more parking, which gives us more need for cars, which means more cars on freeways, etc.. It's a cycle. If we had less parking available, there would be a greater push for alternative transit modes (i.e. buses, bikes, and rail). We are just giving more room for the cars, and less of a reason to invest in real alternatives.

[Annoyed]

Yes, please change this rule! ... On New Year's Day 2010 I was parked in my family's driveway. My tail was hanging out onto the sidewalk by about a foot.

I got a parking ticket at around 5am on Jan 1 for blocking the walkway.

... I was so annoyed!! If the streets of LA were safer I would be ok to park a few blocks away and walk to my family's house at 2 in the morning ...

The city should be focus on keeping our streets safe instead of trying "make some extra money" on parking tickets.

[AJ]

Let me get this straight. If my driveway is already full and I park my own car to block my own driveway, but not block the walkway, I will still get a ticket?

[Jonjon]

Isn't that a safety hazard. What if you can't find your keys and a medical vehicle was trying to get in. Owner or not, you shouldn't block the driveway.

[John P]

Jose, look through the rear window of the front car (the one being ticketed), just above the passenger seat headrest, and you'll see there's a ticket on the cop car.

Parking Enforcement don't care who you are or who you work for; park illegally and they will ticket you.

[Cynthia Kirk]

I'm astonished as well. My neighbors all park across their driveways with impunity, making it even more difficult to back out of my garage on my narrow street in the Hollywood Hills where fire and safety concerns should make such parking illegal. Of course, everybody on my street parks in the red zones too, and rarely get ticketed.

[Cyndy Greger]

NATE: Have you ever heard of a concept of the FAMILY. That's when a mother and father and possibly several children all live in one house.

Imgine that Mommy and Daddy each have a car. Suppose your oldest 2 or 3 kids live at home (High School & College aged) and they each have a car. This is not unheard of, and already we're up to 5 cars. Even if you have a 2-car garage and your driveway also holds 2 cars...you've still got an extra car.

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH IT?

Now suppose you only have a 1-car garage. This translates into a situation where you've only got 2 car spaces (1-garage, 1-driveway) on your property but the SAME 5 CARS! What do you do with 3 extra cars to park?

It's not difficult to see how this can get worse (Dad has a fancy "weekend only" car parked in the garage...or one that Jr. is "fixing up" now you've got 4 "extra" cars to park!

What about people with such small houses thaat they have transformed their garage into a play room for the little tykes, complete with carpeting and a toy kitchen, crate of legos, etc. Now you've only got driveway space...before you have to park on the street.

Too bad the original city planning commissions didn't institute a minimum lot size of 1/4 acrce per single-family home. Then everyone would have plenty of space on their own property to park their cars.
High Density housing sucks. That's why I left LA.

[Alan]

"And at this point, you don’t want to introduce a program that could drain money."

That says it all. There are no "safety" concerns, give me a break.

[Astonished]

Actually, doesn't it behoove someone to find out about available parking before purchasing, leasing, etc., a home? Screaming about the lack of parking after the fact is kinda stupid, don't you think?

As for ticketing for blocked driveways, I know for certain that the procedure (this was years ago) included having the officer confirm that the resident wanted the vehicle cited. But, with all these "budget" cuts, who knows what the they'll do now.

[Looking for Parking Space]

Ummm, this photo opp is not parking in front of a driveway, see the extension of the red curb? It is just illustrative of a ticket. Plus, in almost all neighborhoods, you can NEVER get a real COP to write a parking ticket, even when it is for a commercial vehicle taking up the only disabled (blue) space within ten blocks!

LA's Parking Enforcement mini-carts issue almost all the tickets. Yah?

But this car IS parked illegally both IN RED and more than 12 inches from the curb. That is meaningful especially as cars parked so far out into streets cause congestion, narrowing traffic lanes so two cars cannot drive past each other, and no room for bicyclists.

About the main point? The driveway is a sacrosanct possession of the property owner. If the owner wants to block her own residence driveway, so be it. Really, City Council, the Fire Department and Ambulances do NOT ever pull up into driveways, they just stop and block the street, so they do not need the driveway terminus. 'nuff said.

This is all about the City Council not wanting to give up the lucrative Parking Ticket REVENUES!