California Coastal Commission Affirms Its Stand Against Resident-Only Parking In Venice
The California Coastal Commission backed up its own rejection of resident-only permit parking zones for Venice, releasing a series of "revised findings" that reject claims by those who wanted the overnight parking districts (OPDs) and bringing some joy to advocates who say the zones were meant to push out the area's RV-dwelling "mobile homeless."
The commission's findings, publicized Friday in a statement by the Venice Action Alliance, refute claims by OPD proponents that Venice was singled out as the only coastal community in California to be denied such parking and that such zones do not meet the definition of "development" under the state's Coastal Act.
The findings will provide fodder for the commission as the Venice Stakeholders Association and the city of Los Angeles take it to court over its rejection of the overnight parking zones. The legal challenges claim that parking is not development and therefore the commission does not have the jurisdiction to deny the city's implementation of OPDs; they also claim that indeed Venice has been singled out.
The Action Alliance notes however that the such zones have been rejected in the past in cases where the city did not provide a required one-to-one ratio of unlimited replacement parking spots in a community (a previous rejection of OPDs for Santa Monica Canyon/Pacific Palisades is cited).
"The findings underscored the commission's assertion that its fundamental responsibility is to protect the public's ability to access the coast and that the city was asking them 'to balance the needs of the local residents and the homeless problem,'" reads a statement from the Alliance.
The commission will vote on the revised findings Sept. 15.
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