SANTA ANA : Council Revises Parking Standards

The City Council adopted a controversial policy this week that will force some new businesses to provide more parking spaces for their customers but will allow others to provide fewer spaces.

“In some areas we had overflow, but we also had businesses that were required to have more spaces than they really needed,” said Councilwoman Patricia A. McGuigan. “This policy is to provide consistency between parking needs and reality.”

In an atmosphere described by Councilman Richards L. Norton as “a three-ring circus,” council members held a lengthy and often confusing debate over the proposed parking standards before approving them, 5 to 2, with John Acosta and Ron May dissenting.

But further discussion of hotly contested portions of the new policy that deal with auto repair shops, dance halls, lodges, nightclubs and bars was postponed indefinitely.

The new parking standards, which vary depending on the type of business, are all based on a building’s gross square footage.

For example, new restaurants will be required to provide one parking space for every 100 square feet of floor area. Restaurant parking had previously been determined by the number of its employees, business vehicles and seats.

The new standards will be up for final adoption by the council Oct. 29. They would take effect 30 days later.

The council deadlocked 3 to 3 when it first considered the entire set of new standards.

Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr. abstained from the vote to avoid what he said was a possible conflict of interest. His family owns Ace Muffler Shop in Santa Ana.

But Pulido later joined a majority of the council in approving Councilman Daniel E. Griset’s proposal to adopt all but the most controversial aspects of the plan.

Griset, who has led the battle for tougher parking standards, called the council’s inability to pass the complete package “a step back.”

Mayor Daniel H. Young complained that the issue had been subject to “intense lobbying by people who do not want these standards on the books.”

“People are upset over the pattern of development in this city,” Young said. “Our job is to take on the tough task of trying to set standards of the next 20 years. We want to tell people in the community that we won’t see the mistakes of the past.”

But Acosta, an outspoken critic of the new standards, said he believes they unfairly target specific businesses.

On Sept. 17, the council approved new parking requirements for any residential dwellings built in the city in the future.