Long Beach : Parking Solutions Proposed

The Long Beach Housing and Neighborhoods Committee has decided to recommend to the City Council a series of actions that residents can request to combat parking space shortages in certain areas of the city.

Among the recommendations are a provision for city-issued stickers on cars for overnight parking and mandatory inspections of garages when homes are sold to make sure that they are usable for cars rather than storing belongings. A three-block survey in the Belmont Shore area indicated that as many as 30% of the residents do not use their garages for parking, city Planning Director Robert Paternoster reported.

Other recommendations include repainting parking space markers on streets so they are diagonal, instead of parallel, wherever possible; trying to arrange for use of public or commercial parking lots for residents at night, stepped-up preferential parking programs and construction of residential parking lots.

Councilwoman Jan Hall, who chairs the committee, said the recommendations would establish a city policy on parking from which residents can choose the options that best suit their needs.