Hermosa Tries to Avert PCH Parking Ban

The Hermosa Beach City Council has scheduled a Jan. 22 public hearing to discuss Caltrans’ recent announcement that the state will soon ban rush-hour parking on the perpetually logjammed west side of Pacific Coast Highway.

“Obviously, we’re hoping to talk Caltrans out of it,” said Councilman Robert Essertier, who said the city “needs to fight (the Caltrans edict) in every way we can.”

But California Department of Transportation officials said that there is no room for argument and that they plan to appear at the 8 p.m. hearing only as a courtesy.

“They really don’t have any choice in the matter,” said Karl F. Berger, a Caltrans associate transportation engineer. “I’m just going to explain, one last time, why this is happening.”

At issue is what to do about one of the most notorious traffic bottlenecks in the South Bay. Although PCH has three lanes to carry southbound traffic through Manhattan Beach during the evening rush, the river of commuters must narrow to two lanes in Hermosa Beach because of curbside parking there.

For more than 20 years, Caltrans has urged Hermosa Beach to clear the highway of parked cars--if only during rush hours--but the city has refused, saying a parking ban would put local merchants out of business and create an expressway through the heart of town.

Although Caltrans holds jurisdiction over the state highway system, officials said the agency did not force Hermosa Beach to comply, in part, because Caltrans lacks the personnel to enforce its own laws and would have to rely on Hermosa Beach police to make sure the parking ban was obeyed.

Over the years, however, the pressure on Hermosa Beach and Caltrans has grown as employment has risen at office parks in El Segundo and at Los Angeles International Airport to the north.

This year, for example, the El Segundo Employers’ Assn.--many of whose members pass through Hermosa Beach on their way home each night--complained about the bottleneck, not only to the city and Caltrans, but also to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

And in October, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, wrote to Caltrans about the Hermosa Beach logjam, noting that “the obstinacy of a single city” can sometimes be “a major obstacle to . . . common-sense projects.”

The debate culminated last month in a letter from Caltrans to the city, giving Hermosa Beach until Feb. 1 to begin banning rush-hour parking on the highway’s west side. If the city refused, Caltrans warned, the agency would post the signs itself.

The edict has infuriated the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce, which noted in a recent newsletter to its members that about 70% of the city’s total sales tax revenue is generated by small businesses along the highway. Those business, the newsletter contended, rely on curbside parking to accommodate drop-in customers.

“This is no time to take actions that will close down more small businesses,” wrote Wesley Bush, the chamber’s executive director, in an editorial.

Others in the city assert that Caltrans’ traffic studies in the area are flawed, and they dispute the agency’s contention that the accident rate in Hermosa Beach is higher than it should be.

Still others, such as Essertier, contend that Caltrans is being shortsighted in its push to improve regional traffic flow.

“Their whole role should not be just how to ram more cars through Los Angeles,” Essertier said. “They need to take a broader view of transportation. The problem is too many cars trying to get down PCH, and it’s not going to get better by adding another lane--that’ll just increase the problem.”