Ban OKd on Curbside Parking by Non-Residents in Sherman Oaks

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a ban on curbside parking by non-residents in a large area of Sherman Oaks, responding to complaints from residents that their streets are clogged by the cars of patrons shopping and dining on Ventura Boulevard.

The special parking zone created by the council, covering 12 miles of curb along 16 streets, is the largest of its kind in the San Fernando Valley and the second largest in the city. The largest such area is in Westwood.

Councilman Michael Woo told his colleagues that the preferential parking district the plan establishes qualifies as a compromise because it is mutually unacceptable to Ventura Boulevard merchants and homeowners living in the blocks north and south of the busy commercial street.

Woo’s plan, approved on a 11-1 vote, calls for a gradual phase-in of parking restrictions to ease the burden on merchants as they seek additional parking for employees and patrons.

At the suggestion of Jeff Brain, a Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce leader, Woo authored a last-minute amendment to mandate an April, 1991, review by city Department of Transportation officials on the impact of the full plan.

The boundaries of the district are Moorpark Street on the north, Valley Vista Boulevard-Mammoth Avenue-Davana Terrace on the south, Hazeltine Avenue on the west and Longridge Avenue on the east. Parking along Ventura Boulevard, which runs through the center of the district, is not affected.

Under the plan, non-residents would be barred from parking in the district from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. and restricted to two-hour parking at all other times.

This restriction, however, would apply only to one side of the affected streets until Dec. 1, when the restriction will apply to both sides.

Local residents who obtain city permits to affix to their cars will be allowed to park on the affected streets without restriction.

Additional permits could be secured for a fee to permit guests of residents to park on the streets.

Joseph Vitti, president of the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce, said his group supported the permanent imposition of the restrictions on only one side of each of the streets, not both, as is now done in the Melrose Avenue area.