Panel OKs Permits for Overnight Parking : Congestion: Despite wide opposition to the plan, officials say a majority supports the regulation.

Despite widespread and intense opposition, the Glendale Parking Commission has endorsed by a thin majority a proposal to require permits for overnight parking throughout the city.

The commission voted 3 to 2 Monday in favor of the proposal after eight months of hearings during which the parking plan received almost no public support while hundreds of speakers opposed it.

The City Council will consider the proposal after commission members present their written recommendations individually, a process expected to take up to four weeks.

Commissioners Mike Moro and Zaven Hanessian voted against the proposal, saying they needed more time to study alternatives. But Marylyn Weichmann, Nancy Goodlad and chairman James Cashion voted in favor of the proposal.

City officials have repeatedly contended that a silent majority supports the proposal, which would require permits for street parking between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. They say supporters have been intimidated by rowdy opposition crowds at the public meetings.

Under the current version of the much-revised plan, residents would receive two free parking permits if they have no off-street parking available to them. Additional permanent permits would cost $40.

Residents would also be given without charge 30 one-day guest permits. They would be assessed an undetermined nominal fee for additional guest permits.

City Traffic Engineer Tom Horne said the proposal is a means to alleviate traffic congestion, improve access for emergency vehicles, improve safety and force residents to park cars in their garages.

Opponents have complained that the city has not presented any evidence to show that the parking restrictions would solve such problems. They say that the proposal is unfair taxation, that the guest permit process represents a violation of privacy, and that the plan is inconvenient and will not solve the city’s parking problems.

On Monday, a subdued crowd of 40 attending the daytime hearing at City Hall applauded unenthusiastically as speakers stretched their imagination to come up with new arguments against the proposal.

Outside, about a dozen parking permit opponents paraded holding picket signs in their second such demonstration against the parking plan this week.

Carma Lipper, the leader of Citizens Against Parking Permits--a group that has sent hundreds of petitions to the commission asking for a dismissal of the proposal--carried a large placard that read: “What’s next, Big Brother?”

In early hearings, commission members had all but implored the public to refrain from applauding, but they soon gave up trying.

Polite applause gave way to heckles and jeers in later hearings, while the number of police officers providing security at the meetings was increased to about a dozen officers. In one hearing, an angry mob shoved the city clerk aside in an attempt by residents to force their way into an already packed auditorium, prompting the intervention of police officers wearing helmets and riot gear.

The commission twice moved its meetings to larger sites as crowds grew to number in the hundreds.

At the final commission hearing on Monday, several speakers seemed to draw inspiration from the wave of political change sweeping Eastern Europe in making a last-ditch attempt to shake what many said they perceived as the commission’s predetermined commitment to the city proposal.

“With so many people fighting for democracy in Eastern Europe, this parking plan is taking our rights away,” said Jenine Fendora, one of the speakers.

“The bottom line is, do we live in a democracy or a dictatorship?” asked C.E. Cadden, another speaker.

Less than a dozen witnesses remained for the commission vote. Those who did said they were not surprised by the outcome. “They’ve bulldozed this thing through since the beginning,” sighed a tired-looking Dale Goeden, who was slumped on a chair near the back row. “We all knew this would happen.”