Honorable Mayor and Members of the Hermosa Beach City Council Adjourned Regular Meeting of December 17, 2019
Title
COASTAL ZONE PARKING ASSESSMENT & RECOMMENDATIONS
(Continued from meeting of November 18, 2019)
(Environmental Analyst Leeanne Singleton)
Body
Recommended Action:
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Accept the Coastal Zone Parking Assessment Study recommendations;
2. Direct staff to return to Council and the applicable City Commissions with the related implementation actions for each of the near-term recommendations; and
3. Direct staff to incorporate the policy recommendations into the draft Local Coastal Program and, if appropriate, draft an amendment to the City’s Coastal Development Permit for the Preferential Parking Program and Remote Beach Park and Ride System.
Body
Executive Summary:
The City of Hermosa Beach has obtained a grant from the California Coastal Commission to conduct technical studies including an assessment of parking resources within the Coastal Zone as part of the City’s efforts to obtain a certified Local Coastal Program.
The draft technical study was shared with stakeholders through meetings, online engagement, and study sessions by the City Council and Planning Commission in September and October 2019 to obtain feedback on the initial draft. During this time, staff also provided the draft study to Coastal Commission staff for input and feedback.
The study has been revised to incorporate the feedback provided to date and is now ready for Council review and consideration before further implementation of the individual recommendations. This staff report includes a summary of the changes made, outlines next steps for implementation, and describes the evaluation of the City’s existing Coastal Development Permit (CDP) for the Preferential Permit Parking Program and Remote Parking Areas to ensure the City is in compliance with the conditions of the permit and, if needed, prepare a request to amend the CDP for City Council consideration and Coastal Commission review.
Background:
As part of the City of Hermosa Beach’s efforts to obtain a certified Local Coastal Program, the City obtained a grant from the California Coastal Commission to conduct technical studies and develop a draft Coastal Land Use Plan and Implementation Plan that cover a range of topics from sea level rise, overnight accommodations, and parking resources.
Over the past 18 months, the City hired a technical consultant to assist in evaluating the City’s current parking resources and programs and evaluating opportunities to improve the availability of parking resources in the Coastal Zone in a manner that balances coastal access requirements with efficient use of the City’s limited land resources and achievement of the City’s economic development and mobility goals.
Discussion:
Community Input Provided
Staff conducted a series of stakeholder meetings in September 2019, presenting the draft report to the stakeholder group and engaging their feedback. The study was the topic of discussion at a City Council Study Session on October 2, 2019 and Planning Commission Regular Meeting, also in October. A project page on the new City website was established and an opportunity for the community to provide input through Speak Up Hermosa was made available. Finally, staff also solicited input from Coastal Commission staff in September and October. The input from these engagement opportunities have been incorporated into the revised study provided as Attachment 1.
Revisions Made
The following revisions have been made to the study based on stakeholder, City Council, Planning Commission, and Coastal Commission staff input:
• Clarifications in the introduction to provide context on status of LCP
• Clarifications to parking meter types
• Corrections of text references to table numbers
• Adjustment of near- and mid-term implementation based on stakeholder and Coastal Commission feedback
• Expansion of discussion on demand-based pricing, event management parking, residential permit program, and additional public parking recommendations based on stakeholder and Coastal Commission feedback.
Implementation Needed
In order to realize the goals of this study, a series of procedural steps is needed to implement the recommendations. In addition to incorporating the principles of these recommendations in to the Local Coastal Program, and the review of the overall LCP by the Planning Commission and City Council, Table 1 below identifies the anticipated action(s) needed in order to implement each recommendation, the timeframe for implementation, and the applicable City Commissions that would be expected to review or provide input as the action for each recommendation is drafted.
Table 1 - Coastal Zone Parking Assessment Anticipated Implementation Actions
Near-term = within 1 year | Mid-term = within 3 years | Long-term = within 5 years
Review of Coastal Development Permit for Preferential Parking Permit Program
In addition to incorporating the principles of these recommendations into the Local Coastal Program, the City is evaluating and may need to pursue an amendment to the Coastal Development Permit for the City’s Preferential Parking Permit Program (Coastal Permit #5-84-236) to ensure the City is in compliance with the conditions of the permit initially issued in 1984 and amended in 1989, 1992, 1998, and 2004.
The conditions of this permit articulate several key requirements the City must comply with in order to offer a residential permit program. In addition to caps on the cost of a daily permit/hourly meter rates, hours of enforcement, and provision of signage to indicate the availability of public parking, the permit requires that the City shall provide:
• no fewer than 1,100 metered parking spaces within two blocks of the beach (yellow meters) that allow parking for no less than six hours and that accepts coins for up to six hours per visit;
• no fewer than 440 short-term, two- to three-hour public, metered, commercial spaces on streets and public lots; and
• an accessible supply of free, long-term, remote public parking spaces in the numbers and in the locations and on the days of the week indicated below:
Staff is conducting an assessment of the permit requirements and comparing the current available spaces and other regulations to ensure compliance. If an amendment is needed, staff would prepare an application for City Council to consider amendments to the Coastal Development Permit in conjunction with changes to implement recommendations 9 and 10 to amend the residential and employee permit programs.
General Plan Consistency:
PLAN Hermosa, the City’s General Plan, was adopted by the City Council in August 2017. The pursuit of a certified Local Coastal Program is an integral concept to combining the City’s General Plan and Coastal Land Use Plan into a single cohesive document, PLAN Hermosa. This integration of the Coastal Land Use Plan is described in detail within the Introduction of PLAN Hermosa. PLAN Hermosa also identifies policies within the Governance Element and throughout each element of PLAN Hermosa related to the importance of collaboration and coordination with the Coastal Commission and maximizing public access to the coast.
As it relates to parking and mobility, Goal 4 of the Mobility Element and the associated policies listed below are most relevant to the development and adoption of this study.
Goal 4. A parking system that meets the parking needs and demand of residents, visitors, and employees in an efficient and cost- effective manner.
With emphasis on residential parking needs, public and shared parking supply, and seasonal peak parking demands, services need not be one size fits all. Innovative parking supply solutions will be used to provide a variety of services tailored to different users in addition to adopting policies that will incentivize targeted business and commercial development of shared parking solutions.
Policies
• 4.1 Shared parking. Facilitate park-once and shared parking policies among private developments that contribute to a shared parking supply and interconnect with adjacent parking facilities.
• 4.2 Encourage coastal access. Ensure parking facilities and costs of such facilities are not a barrier to beach access by the public.
• 4.3 Reduce impacts. Reduce spillover parking impacts due to employee parking and seasonal and event-based demands.
• 4.4 Preferential parking program. Periodically study and evaluate the current inventory of public parking supply and update the preferential parking program.
• 4.5 Sufficient bicycle parking. Require a sufficient supply of bicycle parking to be provided in conjunction with new vehicle parking facilities by both public and private developments.
• 4.6 Priority parking. Provide priority parking and charging stations to accommodate the use of Electric Vehicles (EV’s), including smaller short-distance neighborhood electric vehicles.
• 4.7 Parking availability. Optimize parking availability through dynamically adjusted pricing and new technology to manage available spaces for short-term parking use to encourage rates of turnover that are responsive to fluctuating demands.
• 4.8 Ensure commercial parking. Ensure that prime commercial parking spaces are available for customers and other short-term users throughout the day.
• 4.9 Encourage TDM strategies. Encourage use of transportation demand management strategies and programs such as carpooling, ride hailing, and alternative transportation modes as a way to reduce demand for additional parking supply.
• 4.10 Visitor parking information. Manage information about passes and accessing public parking lots to facilitate use by longer-distance visitors with limited transportation choices.
• 4.11 Consolidated parking facilities. Consider the development of new small-scale parking structures or shared facilities outside of the Downtown core and incorporate adaptability standards so that they may serve other uses in the future.
Fiscal Impact:
There is no fiscal impact associated with accepting the recommendations of this study. Individual recommendations would return to Council for approval and implementation and the fiscal impact would be documented in conjunction with each individual recommendation.
Attachments:
Coastal Zone Parking Assessment Report - Revised November 2019
Respectfully Submitted by: Leeanne Singleton, AICP, Environmental Analyst
Concur: Ken Robertson, Community Development Director
Concur: Peter Ahlstrom, Community Services Division Manager
Concur: Nico De Anda-Scaia, Assistant to the City Manager
Fiscal Impact: Charlotte Newkirk, Accounting Manager
Legal Review: Mike Jenkins, City Attorney
Approved: Suja Lowenthal, City Manager