Parking

Ever since I attended a lecture by Donald Shoup at the LA Street summit in 2010, it has been stuck in my brain that most municipal zoning codes effectively make it illegal for developers to pursue truly sustainable models of development. Parking minimum requirements set a bar for levels of parking that must be built, often with arbitrary formulas based on building use and size written during decades when trends of car use and ownership were on very different trajectories than they are today.

Earlier today, AEG announced the completion of the first draft of environmental documents for Farmers Field, the proposed football stadium for Downtown Los Angeles.  The document, available on City Planning's website, is a mammoth 10,000 pages and the ceremonial handing over of the documents to the city at today's event involved 13 overflowing three ring binders.

Can a community plan claim to be progressive without a strong affordable housing component?

It's almost like the City Council Planning and Land Use Committee (PLUM) was celebrating Park(ing) Day a little early.

(Last week we had a chance to talk with UCLA Professor and renowned Parking Rock Star Donald Shoup about Los Angeles' ExpressPark system coming to the Downtown soon.  The transcript was edited slightly by both of us for clarity. For more information about ExpressPark and the city's plans, visit Blog Downtown. - DN)

This Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee will consider an ordinance that would create a permitting system that would allow people to park in front of the driveways of the dwelling they lease or own.  The California Vehicle Code (CVC) allows municipalities to create such a program, but none of the other major cities in California have yet to try such a program.

In 2009, the City of Los Angeles began making life a little harder for parking scofflaws by raising the fees for various offenses for the first time in years.  In 2010, the City again "adjusted" the fees upward and a new report from the City Attorney shows that the city is considering another increase in what is becoming an annual tradition.  The City Council Transportation Committee will vote on whether to approve even higher parking ticket fees on Wednesday before the full Council considers them later this month.

It is doubtful that the media will give the same attention to today's report, "Audit of the City’s Parking Meter Collection Process" by City Comptroller Wendy Greuel as it did the "Gold Card" report a couple of weeks ago or the "Parking Cops Taking Part in a Porn Video" report on NBC from earlier this year, but the most recent report might be the most damning.  The city really doesn't know how many parking meters it has?  Among the findings:

Last Thursday, Los Angeles Comptroller Wendy Greuel released the findings of an audit of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation's parking program to address shortcomings in revenue collection.  Greuel's report identified a couple of areas that needed addressing to maximize revenue, but the item that caught the media's attention was the so-called "Gold Card Desk" (GCD) where City Council Members could "fix" parking tickets brought to their attention by constituents with a simple phone call.