Santa Monica : Engine Idling Limit Studied

The City Council directed city staff to investigate creating limits on engine idling for parked vehicles, a measure proposed by Councilman Ken Genser.

Genser said such idling, especially among parked buses and delivery trucks, causes undue noise and air pollution. City Atty. Robert M. Myers said limits on idling could be feasible if they are similar to the city’s construction noise and trash pickup regulations.

Genser said he has received several complaints from residents in the last six months on the issue.

The council also voted to study a proposal by Councilman Herbert Katz to reconsider a rule that established metered parking all day Sunday in some parts of downtown.

The City Council voted unanimously to include the inquiry in a city-staff study on parking fees that is scheduled to be presented to the council next month.

In other action, the council unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international comprehensive nuclear test ban.

Santa Monica became one of several California cities to, in effect, prod the U.S. government to sign an international test-ban treaty that would not only extend a prohibition of atmospheric nuclear explosions, but ban underground and underwater testing as well.

Resolutions endorsing such a ban from cities across the nation are scheduled to be presented to President Bush, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher next month.