A Parking of the Ways : Traffic: When beach-goers come out, others stay in--where they don’t need to line up for a space.

During the winter, Sandra Acevedo comes and goes from her Balboa Peninsula home with ease. But during the summer’s beach town parking crunch, Acevedo often trades her Volkswagen Fox for a pair of skates or a bicycle.

“In the winter it’s wonderful, but starting now, it’s terrible,” said Acevedo, who said she has circled the same three-block area for 25 minutes looking for a space, only to give up and park in a restricted zone.

With summer unofficially under way this Memorial Day weekend, residents of the county’s coastal communities are bracing for the parking problems that are caused by swarms of beach-goers.

“There are a lot of times that on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, you don’t leave (the house) because everybody’s leaving” the beach, Acevedo said.

Newport Beach officials are preparing for the onslaught. The city’s beaches attract about 200,000 people each summer weekend, so the Police Department has added a bicycle patrol to monitor activity on the Balboa Peninsula.

City Manager Robert L. Wynn said police are increasing weekend patrols and will set up checkpoints to stop cruising drivers from clogging Balboa Boulevard, the only route onto the peninsula.

Other than that, officials are “praying,” Wynn said.

In Laguna Beach, officials will begin adding part-time parking control officers next month to enforce regulations, said Sgt. Ray Lardie, public information officer.

Because the city of 26,000 residents has an influx of 30,000 to 35,000 visitors on a summer weekends, parking is limited in downtown, but the situation is not as bad as in Newport Beach, Lardie said.

Still, he added, “our residents are happy when the summer season is over.”

Steve Benson, parking and camping supervisor in Huntington Beach, said parking is not a problem at all there because the city has nothing but sand on the beaches, as opposed to homes and other structures that necessitate parking spaces.

In addition, the city of 189,000 offers parking lots with meters to tourists, who number at least 50,000 to 60,000 a day during the summer.

“So, actually, we have a ton of parking. The problem is finding enough help to run the silly things,” Benson said, referring to meters.

Like Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach will increase parking crews next month to handle the increased traffic.

Though summer congestion may inconvenience residents and police officers, coastal cities reap a substantial amount of money from parking meters, lots and citations.

Huntington Beach received more than $2 million in parking-related revenue in 1990-91. Beach parking lots generated $1.1 million, with meters bringing in $325,000 and the rest coming from parking citations. For each car parked in a beach lot, $1 goes to pay for building the new municipal pier. The rest of the money goes into the city’s general fund.

Newport Beach collected $1 million in parking revenue in the 1990-91 fiscal year, half of which goes into an off-street parking fund for lot construction and improvements. The rest of the money went into the city’s general fund.

Parking-related revenues brought Laguna Beach about $2.1 million in 1989-90, about $1.5 million from meters and about $635,000 from citations.

Meter money goes into a parking authority fund, used for future lot construction, maintenance of lots and meters and related purposes. Citation money goes to capital improvements, including lighting, sidewalk repair and restroom repairs.

In Newport Beach, the existence of apartments and homes along the beach is forcing the city to devise new parking strategies. In addition to permits that would allow holders to park an unlimited time at meters with blue poles, a new master parking permit will soon be available to the public.

That permit--which will sell for $350 this year, $400 next year and $450 in 1993--will allow motorists to park at any city meter for an unlimited amount of time.

City traffic engineer Richard Edmonston said he would be “surprised” if 50 a year sell because of the price, but he said he has had a few calls expressing interest.

Acevedo said she would like the city to give residents their own parking spaces, but that is “illogical,” she said, because of the number of tourists competing with apartment dwellers for slots.

Likewise, Lisa Mahoney, who lives along Balboa Boulevard, complained that residents have been “displaced for the sake of tourism” and said residents should have preferred parking.

“My boyfriend and I have a big joke on who is going to drive, because it’s such a hassle to park,” Mahoney said.

Wynn said the state Coastal Commission bars the city from setting aside spots for residents because beach-goers have a right to park on the city streets when visiting the area.

“The fact of life is the public beach is public,” Wynn said. “It’s a natural asset.”

On some days, Edmonston said, the parking situation in Newport Beach is so bad that motorists compete for illegal spaces.

“On a good day, a lot of people are willing to pay a $29 parking ticket (for parking in a red zone), but that’s not much more than it costs to get into Disneyland,” he said.

Times staff writer Danny Sullivan contributed to this story.