Turf Battle : Debate Rages Over Move to Ban Lawn Parking in Pico Rivera

“Front yards are for growing grass, not cars,” Lee Rubio snapped. “Yet, drive around this city and you’d think some lawns are used car lots.”

Rubio is mad about cars parked on grassy lawns and he hopes the city is ready to stop it. The Pico Rivera resident is a vocal proponent of a proposed city ordinance that would outlaw parking on lawns, a practice that he and others believe endangers property values and runs counter to the city’s drive to spruce up its image.

Yet opponents of the parking ban are equally vehement about their right to park anywhere they choose on their property, including the front lawn. They say it isn’t safe to park on city streets. They complain that the narrow driveways on their tiny lots are not big enough to accommodate more than two cars. Some residents even evoke the Constitution when arguing for lawn parking.

“I believe this ordinance is going against our freedom to use our lawns the way we want,” said Rick Harding, who admits that he occasionally parks his travel trailer on his lawn.

Turbocharged Debate

Months of turbocharged debate over the issue may end Wednesday when the five-member Planning Commission meets. The commissioners, meeting at 7:30 p.m., are expected to decide whether to endorse the lawn parking ordinance and send it to the City Council for final approval or reject the measure. Several hearings on the proposal have been held in recent months, attracting large turnouts.

Said senior city planner John Lampe: “It’s been a while since anything in this city has drawn so much attention.”

Under the ordinance drafted in February, parking would be permitted on lawns only during street sweeping days. The measure also allows driveways to be widened up to 20 feet to accommodate more cars. Those with special parking problems could seek a variance.

How the city will enforce the ordinance, if approved, has not been determined, Lampe said. One way, he said, is to issue a citation, similar to a parking ticket.

In three neighboring cities, violators are ticketed where front yard parking is illegal.

Banned in Bell Gardens

In Montebello, a lawn parking citation runs $53, while in Downey it costs $25 and in Bell Gardens it is $14.

Montebello banned lawn parking in the mid-1960s. City police issue 50 to 60 tickets a month for parking violations on front lawns. “It is not a major problem in this city,” said planner Bob Latta, who credits aggressive enforcement for controlling the problem.

Next door in Bell Gardens, a flurry of citizen complaints about cars stored or propped up on blocks in front yards prompted officials to ban lawn parking a year ago. But enforcement of the ordinance was delayed until last month to allow city officials time to establish enforcement procedures and notify residents of the new law, said Maria Aguirre, assistant city manager. So far, she said, about 30 tickets have been issued.

In Downey, parking on lawns has been illegal since September, 1982. But City Manager Don Davis said he is not sure how many tickets are issued each month because the city does not break out numbers on specific code enforcement violations.

Echoing the sentiments of those opposed to turning lawns into parking lots, Downey City Manager Don Davis said: “One of the goals . . . is to maintain the quality of the city. Parking on the lawns certainly detracts from the city’s appearance.”

‘Barrio Mentality’

Rubio, an 11-year resident of Pico Rivera, agreed. Born and raised in East Los Angeles, he said he watched his boyhood neighborhood deteriorate as houses fell into disrepair and yards went unkept. “When I bought in Pico Rivera, I thought I had left that behind, that barrio mentality of utter disregard for your neighbors’ rights,” said Rubio, a semi-retired apartment owner who paid about $62,000 for a 2,800-square-foot house on a half acre on the city’s south side. Today, he believes his house at 9200 block of Sunglow Street is worth four times the original purchase price.

“Whether a person maintains their yard or their home is their business,” he said. “But I have to draw the line at parking on lawns. Drive down my street and you’ll see people who have jacked up cars on lawns and just left them.

“It’s not fair to me if their bad habits hurt my property values.”

Part of the problem in Pico Rivera, city officials say, is changing demographics. The city is now 80% Latino, and homes that once were occupied by single families now often house large, extended families or several families. Often, city officials say, three or four cars are parked at a single house.

In some cases, like at Olga Munoz’s house, sons and daughters live at home to cut costs while going to school or working.

At a recent hearing, Munoz said the ordinance would be an undue hardship on her family. She said she cannot afford to expand her driveway in the 6500 block of Kelton View Drive. Only two cars can fit in the garage, and with several driving age children still living at home, she said, the only option is to park on the lawn. She claimed that street parking is not safe because of “vandals and such. It is very dangerous.”

Called Too Restrictive

Another resident, Dale Ward, said he supports the intent of the ordinance but believes it is too restrictive. Under the proposed law, motor homes and travel trailers could not be stored on lawns or driveways. But Ward said the late-model, 26-foot travel trailer that he parks in his driveway is “not an eyesore.” Finding off-site storage for a trailer is expensive, he said, and security at storage yards is marginal.

Ward, who lives on the 9400 block of Planter Street, also said the ordinance could lead to a double standard. He said the city is seeking to beautify neighborhoods by restricting lawn parking, but does not require homeowners to maintain their front yards.

“The city says it doesn’t want neighborhoods to get run down, yet they let some yards go unkept, with weeds growing to knee-high,” he said. “Is that equal treatment under the law?”

Planning Commissioner Dorothy Beebe said much of the debate could have been avoided if city officials had required more off-street parking for apartments and housing developments. A supporter of the ordinance, she said the city must get tough with developers and mandate more parking before approving projects.

“In Southern California it is necessary to have a car to go school, a car to go the market and a car to go to work,” Beebe said. “Cars are a way of life, so we must plan for them by requiring underground parking for apartments or wider driveways. If we don’t, this problem will never really end.”

Times staff writer Rita Pyrillis contributed to this report.