Overnight Parking Ban Endangered : Pasadena: Want a permit? Claim a ‘boyfriend-girlfriend’ situation. Residents say they shouldn’t have to reveal private affairs.

The city’s 35-year-old ban against overnight parking--vigorously enforced since July to improve city street sweeping--may itself be swept off the books.

The Board of Directors on Tuesday asked for a re-evaluation of the law, with some directors calling it a regulation that may have outlived its usefulness. Others said the law allows police intrusion into the private lives of Pasadena residents.

“We should look at the underlying policy,” Director John Crowley said. “Is it still valid as it was in the 1950s?”

Director Rick Cole called the current parking ban “an arcane and inequitable application of the law that works better in some places than others.”

“A blanket policy no longer works,” Cole said. Instead, he suggested prohibiting overnight parking only on narrow or steep streets.

The city’s law against parking on city streets between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. was passed in the mid-1950s, Pasadena Police Lt. Robert Huff told the directors Tuesday.

“I’m not sure why the ordinance was passed,” Huff said. But he added the Police Department believes that the ordinance helps keep streets clear for street sweeping crews, helps reduce the number of abandoned and derelict vehicles on city streets, and aids in law enforcement.

For those who lack parking space and must place their cars overnight on city streets, permits are issued on approval by the Police Department for a fee of $36 yearly, Huff said. He said permits are also issued in special circumstances, such as a “boyfriend-girlfriend situation.”

There are no specific criteria, and permits are issued on a case-by-case basis. Residents must give their reasons for seeking the permit.

As many as 3,000 permits are issued annually and about 500 denied. Last year’s fees totaled $76,532, he said. An additional $350,000 was collected from violators who paid $20 citations.

Despite the use of two police assistants who nightly patrol city streets and issue citations, city crews over the years found the streets increasingly blocked by overnight vehicles. So, in July, four Public Works Department employees also began issuing citations as part of a yearlong pilot program to clear the streets for sweeping machinery, said Ivory Herrin, a city administrator in charge of the operation.

As many as 1,000 cars were illegally parked nightly before the program began, he said. That number has been reduced by about 40%.

“It’s not working as well as we had hoped,” Herrin said. “We’ve still got a long way to go.”

But the sudden increase in enforcement prompted complaints in August that spurred the directors to take a second look at the ordinance.

On Tuesday, resident Lou Richards said he was outraged that police should inquire into the private lives of Pasadena residents. “The questions they ask are none of their business,” Richards said of police. “I’m surprised no one has challenged them.”

Director William Paparian agreed, suggesting that the city stop such inquiries and simply post signs advising when street crews will sweep.

City staff members were directed to survey neighborhood associations to garner public opinion on the ordinance and gather information on similar ordinances in other cities. The survey and staff report is expected to take months.