CORONA DEL MAR : Bus Parking at Tide Pools Irks Locals

Almost every school day, hundreds of children come in dozens of buses to visit the tide pools in Little Corona beach on field trips.

Rather than pulling up in the free parking areas at Corona del Mar State Beach, also known as Big Corona, most buses stop in Judy Spindle’s residential area to unload the pupils. Those stops in red zones have her seeing red.

For weeks, Spindle has been going to various city departments and committees to fight the veritable convoy of buses that park in front of her home.

Telling the Newport Beach City Council that simply barring buses from her street would only move the problem to other residential streets nearby, Spindle urged the council to find a better solution.

She asked members to approve a proposal by the city’s traffic panel that would require buses to park in designated parking lots. The council did not immediately respond to her complaint.

“I don’t think it’s fair to push the problem down the street,” she said at a recent council meeting. “I’m here tonight to ask you not to do that. I’m here to ask you to solve the problem.”

Spindle lives at the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Poppy Avenue, where youngsters have direct access to the walkway leading down to Little Corona’s tide pools.

School and bus officials have argued that dropping the students off in the Big Corona lot would force them to trek a half-mile or more, crossing busy streets, to get to the tide pools.

After Spindle and about half a dozen neighbors complained about the noise, traffic and safety problems, the city limited the number of visitors to the tide pools from 600 to 300 per day. City officials also said they will try to better enforce no-parking rules above Little Corona.

But Spindle has argued that those changes stop short of solving the problem. The best solution, she said, would be to bar any bus parking in the residential district and to require buses to park in the lot.

City Manager Robert L. Wynn said the city cannot bar visitors from the tide pools or stop them from parking on the streets, because both the beach and the streets are public property.

Wynn said moving the buses off Spindle’s narrow corner will probably improve the situation and suggested that residents give that a chance to work.