Redondo to Issue Permits to Control Parking by Hospital

Redondo Beach will begin issuing special parking permits to residents near South Bay Hospital in an attempt to halt a spillover of cars parking on residential streets during major construction at the facility.

The City Council targeted the 500 block of North Prospect Avenue, where the hospital is located, for residential parking, and vowed to extend the permit system to any other streets where construction workers and hospital employees park their cars.

Public Works Director Ken Montgomery said applications for parking permits will be sent out in the next few days to all residents of the 500 block of North Prospect Avenue.

A wider ban on nonresident parking will be considered at a council meeting Tuesday night. It could cover an area bounded by Del Amo and Beryl streets and Prospect and Maria avenues. “We are sending a message to the hospital and the labor people that we mean business,” said Councilman Stevan Colin, whose 3rd District includes the hospital area.

Construction began early this year on a 395-space parking structure behind the hospital and a 46,000-square-foot medical office building in front.

Hospital spokeswoman Shelly Kullman said Wednesday that employees and construction workers have been urged to leave their cars in the Sheraton Hotel parking lot on the waterfront and take a shuttle bus provided by the hospital.

Most Are Complying

Most of the hospital’s 400 employees are complying, she said, but the hospital cannot control where construction workers, visitors and others park.

“We have done everything we can to deal with the problem,” she said. She said the new parking structure should be ready for use in October, and “then we’ll have plenty of parking for everyone.”

She said parking in the new structure will be free for employees, so they will have no reason to park on the street.

However, several residents at a council meeting Tuesday night said they are unwilling to put up with the inconvenience during the remainder of the construction period.

They said the influx of nonresidents’ cars has filled their streets during the day, sometimes preventing them from backing out of their driveways. Some visitors are parking so close to other cars that they cannot pull their cars away from the curb.

Stern Measures

One speaker urged the council to take stern measures, shutting down the construction project until the hospital comes up with a solution. He suggested that the hospital give its workers a choice: use the shuttle or get fired.

Mary Lauten, who lives on Paulina Avenue, said banning the nonresidents from one street will only push them over to the next closest street. “We have a domino effect here,” she said. “As long as they can find a place within convenient walking distance, they’ll park on our streets.”

Montgomery agreed, but said the threat of more preferential parking zones can soon head off any influx into other streets.

“The system really works,” he said. “You issue warning notices for awhile, then go to the hard tickets that cost the drivers money. The word gets around.”