Parkers Taking Disabled Spaces Won’t Be Cited

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said Monday that it has stopped issuing tickets to drivers who illegally park in about half of Thousand Oaks’ 777 spaces reserved for the handicapped because those spaces are improperly marked.

The sheriff’s action was prompted by a recently enacted state law authored by state Sen. William Cravens (R-Oceanside), which requires that handicapped parking spaces have both an upright sign and special pavement markings.

Ventura County Municipal Judge Barry B. Klopfer, in a memorandum to Sheriff’s Department officials in charge of law enforcement for Thousand Oaks, said tickets issued to handicapped parking space violators must comply with the new state law that became effective in January.

“Unless the handicapped parking space complies with these new requirements, it is not a violation for anyone to park. . . ,” wrote Klopfer in a May 11 memo to Cmdr. William Wade of the Sheriff’s Department.

Klopfer also told police chiefs in Ventura County at a meeting earlier this year that the Municipal Court cannot uphold tickets issued to motorists who park in improperly marked spaces for the handicapped.

But the Legislature is considering an amendment to the law that would allow authorities to cite any non-handicapped person who parked in a space reserved for the handicapped, no matter how it is marked.

About half of the city’s parking spaces reserved for the handicapped either do not have both the sign and the proper pavement markings or do not have markings painted in the blue and white colors required by the new law, Wade said.

“The law was changed, but there were no provisions for handicapped parking stalls that were already there,” Wade said.

But Scott Johnson, Cravens’ legislative aide, predicted that in the next month the handicapped parking law will be amended to allow the ticketing of any motorist who illegally parks in a space marked for the handicapped.

“No other jurisdictions have told us that they had trouble enforcing the handicapped parking law, but this amendment should clear it up once and for all,” Johnson said.

The original intent of the new law was to make the spaces for the handicapped more visible to motorists, Johnson said. “It was designed to make sure that handicapped spaces were kept open and unobstructed,” he said.

The limitations of the new posting law came to light after a man who had been ticketed for parking in a handicapped zone presented a photograph showing that the zone was improperly marked, said Ventura County Municipal Judge John J. Hunter, who presided over the case.

The fine for illegally parking in a handicapped zone is $50 for first-time offenders and up to $250 for repeat offenders.

Violators who park in properly marked spaces for the handicapped will be issued tickets throughout Ventura County, Sheriff’s Department officials stressed.

Los Angeles parking enforcement officials said they are continuing to cite motorists who park in any space reserved for the handicapped, no matter how it is marked.