Recommendation to receive and file the Parking Study for Downtown and Alamitos Beach.  (Districts 1,2)
So please cast your votes. Great motion carrier. And I went, thank you to the council and everyone that came out to speak tonight. We're going to transition into the time certain. And so I think if you're not if you're here for next the item that's coming up which which is the parking study report that's what's next. If you're not here for that, please just quietly exit so we can transition into the next time into the time serve that we have. And we'll start that in just a minute as people exit. Are they? I'm sorry. Yeah, I think they're think. Don't believe Joe anywhere. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well. I'm a landlord and tenant in Chicago. The only thing worse than landlords and tenants. I don't know where it comes. Their natural enemies or. Okay. We're going to go ahead and move on. Madam Court, can you please call that the time? Certain item item 15 report from Development Services recommendation to receive and file the parking study for Downtown and Alamitos Beach District one. And to thank you, I'm going to ask the item, please, guys. Everyone that's talking. You guys, I'm going to go outside. Please. Please read the item. Mr. West. Mr. Mayor, council members, this is an item that we've been working with the community on for a parking study in the downtown. It comes to us as a result of a settlement agreement with the TAPS Group in the downtown. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Linda Tatum of our development services team, as well as Christopher Coons and our public works director, Craig Beck. So Linda. I'd just like to introduce our project team, which was and included the Development Services Department staff, as well as the city's traffic engineer, Eric Lidstrom, as well as Christopher Coons, and previous to Christopher Carey, Ty, as well as our consultant who is in the audience tonight and will be available to respond to technical questions regarding the report . So I'll turn it over to Christopher for the staff presentation. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, and members of the Council. So as. Was mentioned, this parking study looking at downtown and Alamitos Beach came out of a settlement agreement, but really became more than a legal settlement. It became an opportunity for the city to work with the community and get really good data and chart a pathway forward to address parking issues in two very different environments one being downtown and one being Alamitos Beach. So there's basically four aspects to the study that Kellaway did with staff. One is collecting data so that we're basing our assumptions on facts and not just on implied assumptions, and then identifying strategies to increase parking availability, a public outreach and engagement component. And then the final documentation, which is the report that's in front of you this evening. So as mentioned, after we came to an agreement on a number, a complex set of litigation related to certain successor agency projects, sales, project, property sales. We came together with Albie Tops, which is Long Beach Transportation and Parking Solutions. They were at the table with us as we crafted the RFP. They were part of the RFP process where we selected the consultant. We selected KOA Corp., which in our view and staff's view did an excellent job on this study. They were that was a choice that I'll be tops was involved in and supportive of. And the entire process was data driven, as I mentioned. So when we look at what we found, we start with downtown. And based on Kayleigh's assessment, the factual assessment, there is an excess of available parking downtown. Now, when we say there is an excess of available parking, that does not mean that on any given hour that every visitor or resident is able to find exactly the parking space they want. AT Exactly. Exactly the moment they want. What it does mean is that there is numerically an excess supply of parking and that that is demonstrated in accounts that were done weekday off Street. There's a good amount of parking available. And then when you look at the weekend, there's a good amount of parking available. The other thing that we look at is parking turnover. So businesses especially need parking to be available not just to one person that parked there all day, but for customers to be able to come and go throughout the day. So that's why we look at turnover, how many times a specific space is used during the course of the day. Turnover is fair within downtown at about 2 hours and time, and parking is generally available throughout the day. What we did find, however, was a lot of that available parking can be hard to find and that signage is lacking. So a recommendation of this report, which is just one example of many items where our work has already begun, has to do with improving wayfinding. And this council previously placed a wayfinding package not just for downtown, but citywide. That's being implemented already. So this just shows you we went blocked by the consultant team with the city, went block by block measuring parking and measuring parking availability. And as I mentioned, it doesn't mean that parking is always available perfectly on every block. But as you can see illustrated here in color that it's not more than a single block walk to a block, that there is more parking availability based on the data. So what we found in Alamitos Beach is very different than what we found downtown. So I think all of us that live in the study know these findings from firsthand experience. There is a parking shortage within Alamitos Beach. There is very limited off street parking and there is on street parking, but not enough at peak periods. Parking is oversubscribed, especially on weekends, when businesses and residents are competing for the exact same on street parking. Turnover is generally fair to poor, so instead of the 2 hours that we saw downtown, you see longer turnover. And that relates directly to residents and businesses competing for the exact same parking. And obviously a resident wants their home. They're going to park for the day, for the evening, not for a limited period of time. What was interesting is there was the public outreach component that we talked about, and many residents admitted that their garage is used for storage rather than for parking, and that increases the demand for already constrained on street parking. I'm looking at the data all over a majority. Most of the buildings in Alamitos Beach were built before modern parking requirements, so they have significantly less parking than what the zoning code requires today. This is a map of parking availability within Alamitos Beach. And again, we went block by block to understand what that data was telling us. So this study provides data and it provides a point in time. But what's happening within public works and we're glad to assist here. And Development Services is a day by day progress and continual attempt to increase parking availability. So downtown, that's really about signage and wayfinding, but it's also about changing the angle of diagonal parking. It's about parking being added through various roadway reconfigurations. It's about prioritizing red curb and yes, having necessary red curb every moving it where unnecessary to add additional parking. And it's also about using technology such as various apps too, so that people do know where the available parking exists in terms of public outreach. So we mentioned that all Taps was involved in every step of this process, but we wanted to reach a broad section of the community. More than 4000 online surveys were completed, but we wanted to make sure that we were reaching folks that maybe did not receive an online notification or advertising. So we did what are called intercept surveys. That's the low tech solution. That's someone with a clipboard at specific locations throughout the study area asking people about their parking experience. The public generally favors increasing parking supply, not unsurprisingly, changing parking restrictions, having specific parking that's residential restricted and providing alternative forms of transportation. So that could be a traditional transit, but that could also be scooters and bikes and the next thing that we haven't seen yet. So summarizing the findings of what we found, the study had found that Alamitos Beach has a major parking shortage or has a significant parking shortage. As a reminder, most structures in Alamitos Beach were built before 1952. That's a critical day when the city started requiring parking. And even that data in 1952 was not until the 1980s that we required significant amounts of parking. So 20% of survey respondents noted that they use their garage for storage, not for parking. So it doesn't account for is folks that tend to want to be forthcoming about what they're using their garage for. Um, residents and businesses are competing for parking and Alamitos Beach in a more significant way than we find in other parts of the city. And that results in existing on street parking being oversubscribed, varying from just slightly oversubscribed during some daytime periods to very oversubscribed during the kind of dinner period where restaurants are competing just as residents are coming home and looking for their place to park. So the point was not just to document the problem, it was to see where we go forward. So there are recommendations that are attached to your staff report, both for downtown and for Alamitos Beach, and these are things that we're already doing. So adding supply of street parking and then things that we will be doing over the longer term. So looking at robotic parking facilities and use of technology, working with parking applications to help those technology providers provide the public with information about where they are and promoting making it as easy as possible to understand our parking signs and where you can park and when and when not. So that work is already happening. On the development services side, we've made substantial strides in the last two years to allow for parking, lifts and automated parking, and you'll see that reflected in the marketplace over the next couple of years. So as we talked about, there are different recommendations for downtown, as there are for Alamitos Beach and downtown. The issue really is helping people understand where existing parking resources are already available. And we're working in partnership with the LPGA to do some of those signage improvements, among other improvements. Whereas in Alamitos Beach, it really is about providing parking as we can, but also finding ways to encourage people to that do have access to garages, to use those garages for parking and improving transit service so that if folks do have to park out of area, that it's easy to get to their destination within Alamitos Beach. So as part of the settlement, there is a Parking Solutions implementation fund. It will fund some of the improvements outlined in this report, but it will not fund all of them. The report itself does talk about longer term funding strategies, and there are budget implications to many of these recommendations that would have to come back to this body. So today we're here to present this report and you're being asked to accept this report, but that is not the end of making parking improvements. So as a partnership between development services and public works, the work will continue to get additional parking resources, but also to provide funding mechanism for the Parking Solutions Fund going forward. So with that staff does recommend that you receive and file the parking study. This will conclude our obligations under the settlement agreement, but as I mentioned, will not conclude our efforts to increase parking supply in Alamitos Beach and parking accessibility downtown. So with that, we look forward to your questions. Public comment. You guys are going to come in first so anybody become an item to please come up. 3 minutes. Please. Uh. 3 minutes up. Yeah, right. No questions at public comment right now. Yes, Larry, good record because he addressed just a comment. When you're dealing with parking, it is also then parking meters and heard an interesting comment. From two dogs walking down the street. And I think it's important to understand how they view parking meters as paid toilets. Thank you. Thank you. It's video. Uh uh. I live downtown in the East Village, and some of the people in the East Village have parking meters in front of their apartments. So it's not fair to them to be paying a parking meter seven days a week to park for their own apartments. Also, too, you're putting all these new high rise. Buildings into the downtown area. ALAMITOS Enough. First Street. I mean, second Street. You have the tallest building coming up on a on a Alamitos and ocean. You got the tall building right there. Opus Pacific and others. And most people. Today have 2 to 3 cars. Per unit. So if you're putting one car per unit in these buildings, what does the other oh, the other two cars go? Thank you, sir. Hi. My name is Beverly Lifer and I live in Alamitos Beach. I'm fortunate enough that I found a home when I moved here eight years ago that has a garage that I do use for my car. But I think we need to look at other alternatives. I can't take credit for this, but so on our next door there were complaints about people parking at a shopping center during the day. But then someone said, What about taking that parking lot in a shopping center, that all the stores are closed overnight and have some kind of paid parking? That is organized between the city, the property owner and the stores, and can be from five, six, 7 p.m. to six in the morning the next day so that people, residents will have parking. Also, there are plenty of empty lots that used to have buildings that no longer have buildings, and I've seen a few of them. And I don't know if it was through the city or privately that have opened up as paid parking and you see cars that are parked or ARVs for days, which is fine. It's a parking lot and that's what they should be used for. So I'd like to see the city coordinate and work with property owners of these empty lots and shopping centers to have some kind of overnight parking provided. And it's paid or a long term parking. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Next, bigger. Okay. Hi. My name is Debbie Tobias. I live at 100 Atlantic and Long Beach. I'm president of Long Beach Taps. Long Beach could be a shining example of how to do parking right while still accomplishing its mobility goals. Many new parking programs can pay for themselves and fund others. We are asking for your help and need your leadership to do this. After four long years of trying, we failed to get the city to look at the parking issues and solutions. The lawsuit asked for a court order that would have required the city to follow sequels. Not following those laws would make parking problems worse, resulting in more traffic and air pollution. Taps did not ask for money. The city's attorney led the city to settle. When we agreed to the settlement, we gave up something valuable. The court orders. The intent of the settlement was to bring data, professional valuation and new options to you. The city agreed in the settlement that the parking study would do certain things, bringing an unusual opportunity to make things better. The study was required to be solution oriented, comprehensive and close inclusive of all users of parking, identify funding, recommend pricing strategies. Find ways to integrate private parking for public use, protect existing residential parking, review all existing standards, and make any recommendations deemed warranted based on the data analyzed. KOAT and City Reps. Tom Modica, Eric Wood Strand and Kerry Tai are professionals who are trying to address the parking issues. They had thorough, creative, open and honest discussions on multiple fronts. At some point, something changed, especially on the subject of the downtown parking regulations. When Draft two came out, it looked like big holes had been punched in the study. There is a parking problem in downtown Long Beach and we do need to address it now. The city is concluding the study without adhering to the work scope, leaving out things that are crucial to planning for $250,000. You got something that looks more like a staff report stating little more than what the city was already willing to do. History tells us that very little will change regarding action on parking if you turn over further action to staff. Now, unless you decide to help out your residents and really work with us to find solutions, we ask that you hold a study session on parking with the Planning Commission, include Michael Kodama because he has more expertize on parking and toady than anyone on city staff that has worked on parking. We ask that you declare a moratorium on accepting new development applications until you have the data and professional evaluation that's needed to plan better for parking. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Good evening. I'm Laura Greco. May addresses on file on it for Alameda speech as more people are added to our area the planet for them this study will make it very well make very little difference in our ability to park. This is not just our opinion, but also that of our parking consultant Michael Gadamer, who taps paid to advise us and give us feedback to the study team. We've provided you with his written opinion of the parking survey. In his memo, he states that important elements are missing from the study that are needed to make the recommendation work. His he points out some of the key conclusions are not backed by data. Data, for instance, it should be noted that field observations stopped at 6 p.m. and therefore the analysis missed some of the impact related to residential parking needs later in the evening. He also says that a false statement. It's a false statement to say that there is no parking problem downtown. He explains why it does not analyze blocks, but rather only looks at total numbers for a large project area. Please consider asking for alterations to the study. Don't just receive and file. The study relies heavily on parking management to self-parking issues without four key needs to accomplish that. Management. A parking plan. Parking for new buildings. And a funding plan. And a funding plan. Parking Management. The study only describes how parking management is currently spread over multiple city departments and tells the city how to go about hiring management should they decide to do so. Kodama says it is important that the city of Long Beach find a parking manager to focus on this complex issue. I cannot think of a large city without a parking manager or parking department. It is critical that the parking management program not be seen as a one time deal. It must be continuous, collaborative and comprehensive. The parking plan, the existing downtown plan considers visitor parking, not parking for residents and employees. The area needs to be a comprehensive parking plan that is balanced to include the needs of all types of parkers. Kodama points out several things that should be considered, including using incentives rather than more enforcement in the area that has parking issues regarding residential permits, he says. We need a new approach to develop residential. Parking programs and management options beyond the concept that the residents should set up a parking assessment district or hire their own management operation firm themselves. Thank you. Thank you very much next week. Lane car crash of Atlantic Avenue. This parking study probably will not make parking easier for people because there's too much missing from the study. The study relies heavily on parking management to solve parking issues of other four key needs to accomplish that management a parking plan, parking for new buildings, and a funding plan for parking for new buildings. Parking consultant Mike Adams says this As members of the city, how can they find no evidence that a new development in downtown Long Beach has triggered any parking shortage or that there is no need to consider parking requirements for new development without an analysis linking parking requirements and utilization to existing and proposed square footage. This analysis is incomplete without that. He also says it is not a comprehensive program as it does not address the extremely important issue of residential spillover. Parking does not set parking priority users in some areas around the downtown commercial core, nor developed an evaluation mythology based on parking data. In addition, any analysis of future parking demand must consider the loss of parking spaces usually associated with new development in a dense downtown environment. As for funding, many parking studies include an analysis of new revenue streams from parking programs they can buy. They combine that info with an analysis of parking pricing. The result is a planning tool that allows the city to create a funding plan to improve parking parking improvements. Besides big parking structures, structures are available like automated parking loan programs and partnering with developers. The study does not provide such an analysis. Mike Goodall also says this in his Memo to the City. It is also suggested that potential parking revenues be reinvested back into a parking management system. This can be from the parking management program. This is not a new concept and has been effective in cities such as Portland, Seattle, Ventura, Pasadena, San Diego and many other places. It creates transparency and opens up a willingness to pay for parking, knowing that it is being reinvested back into the community with the parking issues. Thank you. Thank you very much next week. Hi, Robert Mills, 100 aspirants. Mr. Mill, I think you answer my questions right. You wanted to ask some questions? I don't. Know. I just have a statement. Okay, fine. Thank you. Go. Gwen. 100. Esperanza. I went to the meeting where you unveiled your plan for Long Beach, and I must say, I thought it was very, very impressive. Just like the homeless plan or the plan for the homeless. Rather very, very impressive. Some of the words that were used included thoughtfulness, foresight, the minutia of the plans, the meticulous planning, and uptown, downtown and Midtown plan. There's a lot of fodder there for a new Bruno Mars song. But, you know, with all of this planning, it just seems like we're getting short shrift when it comes to parking in Alamitos Beach . I hope that you guys use the same due diligence with the homelessness and any other plan on our own parking in Alamitos Beach, because you are talking about our quality of life. And government is supposed to work for everyone, not just select neighborhoods. Thank you. Thank you, sir. You know, I think. Speaker Hi, my name is Romeo Pineiro. I live here in Elementos Beach. I've been visiting Long Beach since the park was a big parking lot. I just recently became a resident of Long Beach about a year and a half ago in which I've collected over 30 parking tickets. Because I am a self-employed, I come home at whatever hour of the day. Sometimes I come home at night. I have to circle the block from bonnet all the way up to Esperanza, maybe up to Second Street, Pass Broadway, maybe even parking. As far as where the Vons is over here, because there is no spots. Not only that, but heading down all ocean. Or even friends living up towards Long Beach and PCH. Or all the way up to. PCH and Redondo are those problematic parking spots not only for Alimentos Beach, but everywhere else? If you take a drive at 3 a.m., at least in Alameda Beach, you'll find a lot of cars parked on red, which should be actual parking spots. There's a lot of red curbs that can allow maybe two or three more cars parked. But it's a red spot. And we're giving. We're getting tickets at night. Sometimes we residents, our friends around my area, don't even want to leave their house over the weekend because we don't want to lose our spots to where? I have to tell one of my friends who has a motorcycle to give me a ride down the street or give me a ride to the grocery store or Hey, let's go eat at Marina because I don't want to lose my parking spot. And this goes. For everyone that's impacted by the parking problem. My main thing is take a drive at 3 a.m. around these impacted places and you'll see all these cars not bothering anyone. Just trying to look for a parking spot. Just getting tickets left and right as I accumulated over 1300 dollars worth of tickets already, where I was happy to be moving into Long Beach. And I'm just sad that I might be moving out of Long Beach because of this. And I have a beautiful apartment on Ocean Boulevard that I don't want to give up, but. Worse comes to worse. I maybe I should give it up because nothing is being done in the area, at least Alamitos Beach area, and paying over $600 for a parking permit to park behind the the main building here or at the Marina Green. Waking up at eight in the morning so you don't get a ticket by not seeing the meter. I mean coming home from work late still have to get up to. Move your car to another parking spot doesn't seem pretty fair. I just ask that you guys take a look at that and maybe just make those red curves actual spots and and and see that for yourselves, that it could create a better solution than just keep giving us tickets. Keynote speaker, please. Hi. My name's Kelsey Simpson. I'm a resident in Alamitos Beach, and I've gone to a lot of the meetings that we've had. We've talked with Councilwoman Pearce about the parking issues in our neighborhood, specifically. I live on Cherry and first. So what I want to do is kind of humanize parking for a second because I feel like the study makes it look like a bunch of numbers and a bunch of data, and you can count cars and count spots and count, you know, garages. And much like the speaker before me talked about what happens a lot in Alamitos Beach are people are having to rethink their entire life based on parking. So it's what time do I have to leave work? What time am I going? Where am I going? What's going on? And then if you are fortunate enough to find a spot on the street, it's happened to me the other morning. I'm leaving to go to work. I'm a teacher. I work in Downey. I was leaving at 6 a.m. and there was a car just parked illegally behind me because I'm guessing that they circled for hours and hours and hours and couldn't find a spot. I waited for 35 minutes as much as they allowed. I knocked on people that I knew. I mean, it was super early in the morning. I also don't want to be an extremely rude neighbor, you know, and unfortunately live. With somebody else who I just took their. Car and sent them in taxes and inside I left my keys for you. This is where my car is parked. I couldn't leave. What's happening to is I know that Long Beach in that specific area has done, you know, adding more spots. So they repainted the diagonal lines and change the angles. What that did is allowed the the guy on my street. Who collects hearses. He currently has six of them. And he's just added actually, I think a seventh I counted on a bike ride the other day and it allows him to continue to add to this on street parking problem. I'm guessing that he doesn't drive a hearse in his normal car. So then that would add an eighth car that a resident is storing in our neighborhood. And the more you circle around, the angrier you get at the hearses. Then it also allows and people that live in Alamitos Beach know exactly what I'm talking about. They also turn old. School busses into cool busses. Literally scraping off, you know, the letters to make it like that as well. And those cool busses end up taking up three or four spots on the street as well as like ambulances that people buy, I'm guessing, in auctions and whether they're living out of them. And that's the larger issue. But what the issue is, is that these these are. Taking up our spots, basic things in place like residential permit parking. Which was discussed, as well as having somebody in the city who who's specifically. In charge of parking and has a parking planning background that has a lot of the knowledge of what is being spoken about and written about in the study would really help and be beneficial, I think to everyone. And we've talked about that with Councilman Pearce at the Abney meetings with Alamitos Beach and we've gotten community support, we've got the we were a huge part in getting a lot of people to take the online survey. We want to live there. We want to like actually live and not, you know, live to park in, park to live. I apologize to you on behalf. Of most of Alamitos Beach residents who couldn't make it tonight because they didn't want to lose their parking spot. So I make you last speaker, please. Hi. My name's Christopher Hassler. I'm an urban planner and I'm currently serving on the board of the Elements Peach Neighborhood Association and here I City Council to amend city code so that residents can band together to create overnight breaking for districts in Alamance Beach just as city allows residents in other parts of the city to create preferential parking districts that keep out commuter traffic. As you've seen in the parking study, our curb parking has been abused. The point where you can take a resident 30 minutes or more when they return home or turn home at night. There are a number of factors at play here, but the most important is the waste of off street parking space. As you saw in the presentation, at least 20% of residents with garages do not use those garages to store their cars. Given that most residents would be reluctant to admit that it's safe, say that the percentage is much higher than that. The city's inappropriate policy of asking residents to report on their neighbors garage use has been ineffective. Furthermore, the season action on our breaking problems has led some residents to try to take matters into their own hands by leaving threats on their neighbors windshields for, you know, the father of this person in park well enough or some other perceived issue. Others use junk cars to claim extra space. And then there's a few residents that use collect hearses and other recreational vehicles. Since there's no room to really increase the parking space in the neighborhood, we need to focus on reducing parking demand as recommended by Highway and overnight Premiere district. That limits demand and encourages more residents to actually use their garages for their cars would go a long way in relieving the intense competition for curb space. From speaking with Councilmember Pearce and other members of the community, there seems to be some concern about Coastal Commission approval. But plenty of plenty of coastal neighborhoods and other cities have established similar parking restrictions as long as enforcement powers are kept within the hours when our beaches are closed. We aren't interfering with public access to the beach. By creating an overnight policy. The city isn't forcing a permanent district on anyone, but instead giving residents a tool that they can decide to use for themselves. Residents would need to gather signatures. Just as they do for the existing. Preferential parking districts. Overnight parking permit districts are crucial to establishing a more equitable system of parking. I would love for the opportunity to sit down with Councilmember Pearce and her staff to form a new policy that works for Alamitos Beach and that can serve as a model for so many other neighborhoods in Long Beach that are suffering from the same issue. Thank you. Thank you very much. Bob, a comment is closed. Oh, sure. Please come forward. No, no, no problem. It's good enough. Yeah. Name is now g livin. Let me no speech at five o East Ocean. Um the young lady earlier when she say that the comment and next thought I was I was on I made that comment. Some business high rises or businesses says the parking is empty all night whatever the cases what if he could work something as a Long Beach transit so to have some kind of shuttle gone up and down so that way the tenants or whoever the looking, the parking, it's not like we're going to be parking for free, but they will pay some kind of fee. So at least the shadows would be going all the way around. Pretty much. Until the morning hour. So that was a win win win situation. So the office building, their will or the business area there will get some kind of income. The tenants are willing to pay for this money on this one. So that just one suggestion I have. Thank you. Thank you for that. Let me go and close public comment. Councilmember Pearce. Thank you. And thank you all for all your efforts through the years for staying here through another discussion, a lengthy discussion. And I want to thank staff as well. I know that this is kind of house with development services. It started with public works. And so I know that there's been a lot of conversation. And so ago, similar to our homeless challenge, is that we've got a lot of great ideas, but having a way to kind of lead those ideas and making sure that we're implementing those. And so I want to start off by saying, obviously, parking is has always been a big issue for me, transportation, making sure that we have safe neighborhoods, making sure that people feel safe walking, you know, five blocks from their car to their home. And so it's an issue that I take really seriously. And I know this my council colleague does as well. I want to start. I guess by saying that I do know that I did see I don't know if it was a first draft, but with the maps it had, like the timing of when you guys were looking at things. And so I recall looking at that. And if we break it down in between downtown and I made a speech that downtown did have more openings, as is relayed in this report. I'm curious, what is our housing vacancy right now in downtown? I know we've got a lot of new developments. I know we have a lot more coming on. I don't know if you have that answer off the top of your head. We we know that citywide the vacancy rate is around 4%, somewhere just under 4%. But we don't have specific vacancy rates. For. The downtown area. Okay. Because I know that there's some discussion around the difference in between, you know, how full downtown is and how full Alamitos beaches and downtown. We have new residential units. We have different type of of folks that are living there versus in Alameda speech, which is almost 100% renter. And it's basically stacked on top of each other without any parking requirement. So I just wanted to identify that difference in between the downtown and Alameda speech. I have a lot of notes, so let me try to start off with the conversation around having a parking czar or a parking manager. This is something that we've talked about since I've been in office. I know that we have a lot of mobility items, whether it's bikes or transit, the free ride. What would it take for us to have one person that is committed to a parking management plan that can lead across all departments? Then what that would take, I would say, would be funding. Because right now we do have a staff in the public works department that devotes a substantial amount of time to parking issues and managing and operating some of the city's parking garages and even the multi-modal means of transportation. However, we do not have a staff that's dedicated full time to parking. And if if the council were to consider that, that is certainly something that they could consider in the upcoming budget to fund a position for that. Great. Thank you. And I think the reason it's great that we have somebody that's in there dealing with it, but it's even better to have somebody says, this is our point person across the entire city that can work in trouble. Areas can look across and say, okay, this works in Bixby, this works in Belmont Shores, Alma's beach. We've never done anything. And, you know, I'm glad that this I meant to say at the beginning, I'm glad that we're to this process because I've felt like my hands have been tied from being able to do big items. So I'm very happy that we have this today so that 2019 we can really be focused on implementing some of the strategies that are in here and putting teeth to them. And so one of them is I definitely would support having a parking person that would help us across the city, particularly because we are developing a lot more residential units. We've got 4000 planned in downtown. We've got the land use element with everything that's coming up with that. So I think it's an important time and that's something that I would definitely support to the comments around the open lots. This is something that my staff personally went lot by a lot my first six months when I got into office. We know that Didi's on seventh is open to having their lot out. We know that the Thai place on Alamitos and Broadway is open to having their lot. One of the questions we've always asked was, What would that take? And we've had the conversation between insurance or is it putting in a meter like we have at fourth and cherry? And so I hope that I can get an answer from staff today so that coming in the new year we can give some direction to because that's very low hanging fruit. So is there a comment on what it would take to make that happen? In order to make that happen, it is actually something that staff is already working on. Economic development staff is actually currently contacting various property owners with parking lots that they don't use overnight and currently exploring the option of establishing some kind of contractual relationship with those organizations or those property owners so that we can use those properties on an overnight basis. And we think something like that, along with some of the other initiatives that we've talked about here tonight, we think that those can start to make a dent in that that that parking issue. Okay, great. And I think one of the I don't want to go through the entire report today, but I think it's there's a lot of recommendations in here and similar with the homeless issue is knowing where we're at and giving some timelines and saying, you know, with this issue and Alameda speech, I'll commit one of my whole staff members to say three days a week, you're only working on parking with development services. And just to make sure that we are engaging and moving quickly. And so that's one area that I think is low hanging fruit. And we'll make sure you have the same list that we have of those businesses or economic development. Parking, homelessness. Ah, there you go. And one of the conversations I'd like to have with talking about opening up those private lots, we just had a transportation committee meeting last week where we talked about free ride and talked about some of the funding sources. So if we're identifying lots like this, if we're saying, well, part of that funding, if we have a contract share where they get part of the funds, the city gets part of the funds, that those funds would go toward something like free ride that would be able to take somebody from Alamitos, you know , into the downtown or vice versa. So getting to the permits so I think is great to read through the idea of the permits and understanding that nighttime permits are more likely to get passed through the Coastal Commission, which is something that I did not understand until recently. And so curious on a timeline, if we wanted to, to look at this in looking that it's resident led but that the city first has to change its code. Correct. I'm not sure that right now there is a prohibition. It really would be initiated by the staff, but certainly I'm sorry by the residents. But staff is certainly available to sit down with them, work with them and come up with a program that we could at least direct and guide them into the procedures to establish some type of overnight parking program. And again, I think to the point that many of the commenters spoke tonight, I didn't I don't think that I heard many suggestions that we aren't already working on or that we think are fairly low hanging fruit the. Staff could continue to pursue. And that is certainly one of those. Okay. So again, I mean, I think it's great that you guys are working on it, but understanding, you know, this is three months out, this is four months out. And I know that timelines are tough. I know that this was supposed to be in front of us in July. And but if we can have a benchmark and we say, okay, we're not where we thought we should be at this time, what staff resources need to change? What community resources can we engage in so that we can get it get it done? I don't want to have this same conversation in two years. The last thing I will say is that I expect in January I'm going to work with with Taps, with Alamitos Beach, I'm going to work with staff. And in January, I hope to bring forward some of these items that after we have a conversation that we understand , need a little bit more council direction to get done, whether that's a committee or task force, whatever that looks like, that's short term that we can make sure that we implement quickly. I know there are a lot of other things on here, but I do want to just thank community members, especially those that that that reach out . And I, I know that this is a challenge I have I'm a rancher myself, live in Alamitos Beach, have walked blocks in the middle of the night and understand the safety issues that are of concern for us. One more thing on the garages, I do have a question. So my house that I previously lived in had a garage. The neighbor called code enforcement on us. Our car didn't fit in the garage. And so is there an opportunity for us to create a register of garages that would be available to rent should somebody's car doesn't fit or they don't have a car? So you know what? My neighbor can rent out my my garage. Like, just some challenges that we have with old garages. Sure. So the registry is not currently on our implementation list, but certainly we can take a look at that. But just to clarify, for the council and for the public, the requirement under the city's codes is that the garage should be available for you to park in, and we can't force an individual to park in their garage . So even if I don't know what kind of car you drive, but even if. Chevy. Even if you know your car doesn't fit in the garage, a different style of vehicle by. Name. And they said, you can fit a motorcycle in here so that we don't drive a motor. So that's why from a code and enforcement standpoint, even if your particular vehicle doesn't fit in that garage, the requirement is that the garage should be clear enough that it be available to park in. And that way, whether it's a third party parking in that garage or some future different toys and vehicle that we can get those cars into those off street parking spaces to relieve the on straight parking demand. Great. Thank you for that. I'm sure I have lots more comments, but I fully expect to have an agenda item in January following up on some implementation with us. So I've got Connor here. He's going to come over and connect. I think we had a challenge with getting our most recent meeting on the calendar, so I want to make sure that happens soon. Thank you guys very much. And thank you, staff. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales. Yes. And thanks to everybody for being here. I know I met with a couple of you yesterday, so I really appreciate the time. And similar to what Councilmember Pearce mentioned, you know, I really hope this. Stay is a living document that we continue evolving it. I also believe we do need to consolidate resources and definitely reevaluate policies and so I look forward to working with Councilmember Pearce in the coming year. So first and foremost, I think the parking revenue sort of the parking revenue plan, it seems like historically we've been very reliant on parking meter revenues only as the only source and increasing the parking meter revenues which, you know, we have to do every so often. But it just seems like that's the only thing. So I know this plan looks at other options as well, which I'm encouraged by. So I that's one sort of thought. In addition, I know private lots, they're being managed by various different companies. And I don't know what kind of conversations we're having in terms of consistency about rates. Consistency about. You know, everything related to accommodating residents. Can you give us a little bit of update on that? Because I know that's been an issue historically. And where are we at with just private lots and. I'm sorry. You mean private lots? That private parking lots? Yes, private parking lots. And their rate, the rates that are being charged, I mean, from what I remember and when you look on the website, there's various different rates. So I how where are we at? I'm not sure where we are on that. The parking study did a fairly comprehensive job of identifying a different private parking lots and parking structures, but I'm not sure that it actually went into the actual parking rates. That's something we would have to go back and take another look at. I don't think we have that information currently. Okay. That's one thing that continues to come up. I know with businesses and residents in downtown just the seems like there's an inconsistency with rates and it just one area might be $25 a month. There might be another area that might be 50 or $100 a month. And I think that it's just not consistent at all. So if we can look into that a bit more, that would be great. And I am of the same mindset. I believe we need a parking manager. I remember Luis Maldonado back in the day for all of you have been here for a long time. It was nice to have somebody that had the experience to go to, to talk about parking management and just where can we reassess and reevaluate policies? Where can we add meters, smart meters, or not take them away, whatever we need to do. I think I would like an emphasis on on that next year as we look at our budget and you know what it is that we can do and I know that we're looking at that currently. Yeah. And council member just to go back to your question, so in your report, um, it's on page 97 of your report, we do survey what's being charged as far as off street parking that's available on commercial lots. And certainly we're working with economic development to make additional commercial spaces available overnight. The city's regulatory arm doesn't reach regulating that parking rate, but certainly we can have those discussions with the parking operators. At. Least to recommend, you know, those. And I know that's always very difficult, but thank you. And to that point as well, in terms of talking, I know John Kaiser's team is working on that and talking to private lot owners, private property owners. I would also like us, and I think we've done this in the past. I mean, public public partnerships, you know, perhaps some of the school districts. I know sometimes it's a little bit difficult that through our joint use committee options, that could be an option. In some cases, they have often 200 spaces at any given time. So I think that's something to consider as well if we're not considering that already. And I'm also just interested in sort of revamping our preferential parking policies, looking more towards an overnight parking district, I think is great, especially for areas like the West Gateway, right by the courthouse. They have outside impacts. Most of the residents come in at night and there's like no parking. So that I think, could be very fruitful on the point of outside impacts like the courthouse. I hope that we can do a little bit more in that respect. Outside impacts and events. That's one thing I think we don't plan well for. I know when you go on the special events website, it says some of the events that we have in downtown, but it doesn't showcase all of the events that we have and that doesn't make a good experience for tourists coming in and looking like there's how do I know that there's parking for, you know, the I don't know. I'm just going to pick on myself the day of the event. Not good for them, not good for the residents coming in or the residents that are already there. So I just think we need to streamline that process as well in terms of events and overflow and what that looks like. And then again, outside impacts like a courthouse, like for instance, a temple on seventh, you know, that has constant flow of people every single Sunday and impacts the neighborhood that we know, that special temple that we love that does that. And I just think being able to be a little bit more proactive and finding solutions for these and these owners and these agencies and organizations would be great. Relative to the garages, I think. You know, we have a lot of that in some areas. And I'm wondering if we can cross-reference the parking enforcement data. So. We know that in some areas like in the Wilmore around like eighth and Magnolia eighth and Chestnut area, there are tons of owners who have garages that they use not for parking. And I know we can't necessarily enforce that, but I'm wondering, like tons of people are getting parking tickets in that area. And I don't know. I think we just I don't even have a solution right now, but maybe getting a little bit more creative on cross-referencing that data and being able to provide some relief. I don't even know what that looks like. I've tried to study other cities and I don't really have a good answer, but I just I really worry for those those residents. The last thing is just the consolidation of our sites. We have a city website with parking information, Easy Park, LP, Park, MLB.com, an app that not too many people know about. So it's like we're all it seems like we're all over the place. It'd be nice to have everything consolidated into one a bit more. I know. We know that. And then just lastly, I will say this. Better coordination with Long Beach Transit. You know, I'll tell you from experience in downtown. Not only is it parking impacted in certain areas of North Pine, but then language transit cut lines for seniors in North Pine at the same time. So it's sort of a double impact in that sense. So I would just hope we can coordinate a little bit better given these parking impacted neighborhoods. And I know we know that. I just need to see that. Other than that, thank you very much. I hope to work with Councilmember Pearce on many of these issues and along side many of you as well on these issues to continue the discussion. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Pryce. I just wanted to add, and this is a lot of these. Comments that that I'm listening to are obviously issues in Belmont Shore as well and other parking impacted areas in my district. And one of the items that we brought to council and I don't know if staff has an update on it that my team drafted was an item to look at whether we could streamline the process for people to remodel their garages so that they can fit modern day vehicles in their garages. And I don't remember. It was right around the time that we did the Belmont Shore parking study and we came back with a series of recommendations. One was we actually had public works come out and help with a resident garage cleanup day where people were cleaning out their garages. And we put huge bins throughout the district in certain areas so that people could dump large items and clean out their garages for parking. But I do know that we also explored the feasibility of streamlining the garage conversion process, and I don't know if staff has done any work on that. Maybe this is an opportunity for us to revive that with discussion, that this would be an opportunity. It's something that we have on our work program to go back and take a look at that, given the number of small garages that are in the city's housing stock inventory. Yeah, that would be great. I know our home was built in the thirties and our cars certainly could not fit in our garage today. So we did have to do some some minor work when we remodeled. But if we can help residents with that by streamlining that permit process, I think that would go a long way as well for folks who want to utilize their garages. So Councilmember, we can definitely look at the permit process, but part of that is also working with, I guess, our partners in the architectural and construction industry because for a lot of folks, a project like that can seem very intimidating. But the issue isn't actually the permitting process. It's finding an architect, finding a contractor so we can do a lot better on the communications front and making that easier for the property owner. And that's already on our work plan for 2019. That's great. It would be great if there was an architect that specialized in that and parking impacted areas and they could have some, you know, some packages available that made it worthwhile for residents to do that. So thank you. Thank you. Council Member Pearce. Sorry, I just had two more things I left off. I was wondering if there was anybody on staff that could give us an update on Mola. I know that I've pushed pretty hard and I know that they're in the middle of revisioning their. Their property, but. I think. Economic development. Will be the only person. And I don't know if John has an update on Mullah specifically. John, do. You? Wah, wah, wah, wah. Okay, let's let's. So it sounds like the discussions are in process. Okay. Thank you. And then my other question is, going back to Salinas, Councilmember Gonzalez's point, have cities ever said we're not going to ticket for red curbs in between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. or 7 a.m.? I know. That's. I'm just asking. I'm not saying that I'm going full speed with it, but in parking impacted areas, we get a lot of people to park in the red. Councilmember Pearce, to my knowledge, know that if you look at how the code is written, it's illegal to park in a red curb area regardless of the time of day. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. There is a motion and a second. Please cast your votes.