Garden Grove : Traffic Unit Would Ban Buena Clinton Parking

All on-street parking would be banned in the Buena Clinton area as a crime-fighting tool under a proposal given preliminary approval by the city’s Traffic Commission.

The commission endorsed the plan, which also recommends no parking on the south side of Westminster Avenue, despite opposition from Santa Ana residents living on nearby streets.

About 10 of them protested at a Wednesday night commission meeting, arguing that their neighborhood already plays host to some of Buena-Clinton’s drug and prostitution traffic and that the parking ban would compound the problem. They also submitted a letter of support for their cause from Santa Ana City Manager Robert C. Bobb.

The commission voted unanimously to recommend approval to the City Council, which is scheduled to consider the plan Oct. 21. If the measure is approved, curbs would be painted red in Buena Clinton, considered the county’s worst slum. The plan would be studied over two to three months to see how it works, Traffic Engineer Karl Huy said.

Buena Clinton property owners proposed the ban two weeks ago, arguing that it would eliminate the sight of heroin dealers operating out of their cars on the street. Huy said a ban would have to be accompanied by some action by the property owners to provide off-street parking. “Once we do it, the owners are going to have to make an effort to repair their garages and clean them out,” he said.

But an opposing view was voiced by Mary Jane Arcemont, a Mar Les Drive homeowner, who contended that the drug dealers, buyers and prostitutes will move to Mar Les Drive in nearby Santa Ana if the ban is approved.

She said cars often park on Mar Les West Drive next to a chain-link fence that separates the street from Buena Clinton. People then jump over the fence and make quick runs into the area, presumably to buy drugs, she said. Prostitutes who work on Westminster Avenue and live in Buena Clinton sometimes bring their business onto Mar Les, she added, where they park in their cars.