Elite California neighborhood rolls out new parking permits as ‘overcrowding’ hits

Laguna Hills will soon implement parking permits on several streets in an effort to ease “overcrowding” in areas with limited curbside parking.

The Orange County city is moving to restrict parking on several streets near Beckenham Park as city officials grapple with what they describe as spillover parking from nearby apartment buildings and other high-density housing.

The Laguna Hills City Council approved the creation of a permit parking area around portions of the park at its Sept. 8 meeting, according to Voice of OC.

Residents will pay $25 annually for a parking permit. The city is also expected to spend about $10,000 initially to install signs and mail notices to residents about the changes.

Councilmember Dave Wheeler compared the city’s attempts to address parking problems with permits to a game of Whac-A-Mole.

“What always happens is, you do one neighborhood that’s near the problem and then you’re Whac-A-Mole,” Wheeler said, according to the Voice of OC. “How many more neighborhoods are vulnerable for the next round?”

The new restrictions will not apply to every street surrounding Beckenham Park.

Permit parking will cover the south side of Wilkes Place, Luton Street, Via Balboa and Calle Carmel, along with designated portions of Costeau Street, Camberwell Street, Avenida Avalon and Hendon Street.

Under Laguna Hills municipal code, about 67% of homeowners within a proposed permit parking area must sign a city petition supporting the restrictions.

Assistant City Manager Joe Ames said some streets where support exceeded that threshold could be grouped with connecting streets where support was lower, allowing the designated area as a whole to meet the city’s 67% requirement, according to Voice of OC.

Wheeler said he sees the larger issue as a shortage of parking at high-density residential developments, which he said pushes vehicles onto surrounding streets.

“The problem is we have these high density housing areas that don’t build enough parking and so what they do is they bleed out into the surrounding neighborhoods, and it just keeps growing and growing,” Wheeler said, according to the Voice of OC. “The problem is these places should be responsible for their own parking.”

Wheeler also raised the broader question of whether Laguna Hills should eventually consider a citywide permit system to deal with parking pressures associated with high-density housing.

At the same meeting, the council voted 3-1 to continue considering a separate proposal that would create roughly 46 unrestricted parking spaces along the north side of Laguna Hills Drive, according to Voice of OC.

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