Council opts to change parking limits near Phoenicia

A two-hour parking restriction on a small stretch of Lexington Avenue in downtown Glendale was extended by four hours following ongoing complaints from residents that customers at a nearby restaurant are taking their street parking.

The City Council voted 3-2 on Tuesday to extend the parking restriction that used to go from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday where Lexington meets Central Avenue.

Residents living in the area submitted a petition last year to make their street 24-hour permit parking because they said patrons at Phoenicia were taking up their curbside parking.

According to a study conducted by the city in June, 76% of those spaces were occupied between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., while 93% of them were taken from 6 to 10 p.m.

There are 120 apartment units and 10 single-family homes along Lexington between Central and Columbus Avenue and only 58 spaces, according to Public Works Director Roubik Golanian.

Instead of 24-hour permit parking, the Traffic and Planning Commission offered a more incremental suggestion, recommending that two-hour parking be pushed to 10 p.m. as a means to get cars moved off Lexington more quickly.

The new restriction will be in place for 90 days before its results are evaluated, Golanian said.

At that point, the city could tweak the hours again or perhaps examine how nearby parking meters on Central can be better utilized, Councilman Ara Najarian said. He said he’s more in favor of an incremental approach to solving the problem.

“If that doesn’t work, we have a variety of other options available,” he said.

“I am completely against a 24/7 parking restriction on any street. It creates a very bad precedent,” he added.

At a public hearing on the issue last month, Lexington Avenue resident Rima Hagopian said she’s had to call the police on several occasions to report cars that were parked for longer than two hours. When officers arrived, they had to mark the tires and then start the two-hour count before returning and issuing a citation, Hagopian said.

Councilwoman Paula Divine, who voted against the extension, said that scenario will continue under the extended parking restriction hours. She said she would be in favor of making Lexington at Central parking by permit only from 4 p.m. to midnight.

“I can’t make my decision on what might happen. I have to make my decision on what’s happening,” she said.

Divine added that Phoenicia owner Ara Kalfayan, who recently expanded the restaurant and added another dining room, provides adequate valet parking. However, customers are choosing not to use it, she added.

Although Councilwoman Laura Friedman also voted against extending the parking restriction, she said she was concerned about how permits would be distributed to residents living along Lexington.

Friedman said residents might buy more permits than they need and give them to their friends, defeating the purpose of restricting parking to only residents who live there.

The councilwoman also suggested staff look at parking meters currently along Central by Lexington that currently are in effect through 10 p.m. She said it might be worth trimming that restriction to 6 p.m., so people can park there earlier without having to pay.

“Those are a whole bank of spaces that are underutilized,” Friedman said.