Harbor Gates Costing Merchants Business : Dana Point: Many complain that the new pay-to-park system is keeping customers away.

Almost everyone seems to agree on one thing about the new pay-to-park gates at Dana Point Harbor: They’re a disaster.

Owners of harbor businesses, from the large, upscale restaurants to the quaint gift shops, say they have suffered financially because many customers are staying away from the harbor where parking had been free for 23 years.

But few agree on what should be done about the 2-month-old plan that costs harbor visitors $2 an hour and up to $18 a day for parking. Once, merchants thought a modest parking fee would control the parking lots and keep non-customers from hogging parking spaces.

Now, there’s talk about switching to valet parking, imposing a flat parking fee, having paid parking at peak hours only, or perhaps removing the parking gates entirely.

“We were all for this parking idea at one time, but most of us are outraged now,” said Peggie Pearson of Huntington Beach, owner of the small In-Things shop in Mariner’s Village. “We were for parking control, not $2 an hour and $18 maximum a day. As it is, I’m going broke.”

Yank the gates out, said De Francis, owner of the Chocolate Soldier, whose business is down 250%.

“What has happened is we now have all the parking in the world because nobody is using this facility. . . . All I want is for my customers to be happy,” said Francis, a Laguna Beach resident and a shop owner for three years.

The gates were installed in the Mariner’s Village and Dana Wharf parking areas April 15 to counter what the large harbor leaseholders and restaurateurs considered a serious parking problem.

Studies showed there were enough spaces, but they were being used for long stays by employees, beach-goers and boaters as well as the shoppers.

The problems had escalated over the years as the harbor’s popularity increased, said Morris Harrison, the owner of Dana Village Properties, one of two master leaseholders of the harbor’s retail shops who shared the $150,000 cost to install the gates.

Although the county controls the harbor, it is the master leaseholders who control the parking and the gates, at least until their leases run out in 2001.

“The only reason we did this was because people were driving around in circles and complaining there was no place to park,” Harrison said.

About 850 of the harbor’s 1,623 spaces have been gated. But they were the most popular parking areas, those at the main entrance to the harbor near Doheny State Beach.

Restaurants offer validations for two hours of parking, retail shops one hour, and the sports fishing docks give four hours of free parking. Visitors wishing only to pick up or drop someone off can enter the gated parking area for 15 minutes without charge.

However, many merchants say that word has spread quickly that it now costs to park, and customers are staying away in droves.

“There’s a total boycott among the locals,” Pearson said. “The first month, out of nine cars that came to the gates, eight made a U-turn and left. Every seller will tell you the same thing.”

Harrison and Robert Mardian, owner of the Wind & Sea and Harpoon Henry’s restaurants, blame most of the problems on a poor economy and a period of adjustment to the new pay-to-park policy.

“We made a quantum-leap change after having free parking for 23 years,” Mardian said. “We are now getting a backlash. . . . But I ultimately believe the parking system will work with some refinements.”

Mardian would like to see the gates opened from Monday through Thursday all winter and a flat three-hour validation.

Jim Miller, chairman of the merchants’ parking committee, favors the three-hour idea.

“I understand the public’s frustration, but we had a serious problem,” Miller said. “If they hadn’t been complaining, we wouldn’t have done this.”

Pay to Park

Dana Point Harbor business owners want to ditch the new pay gates they say are driving away customers, who are charged as much as $18 a day to park. Parking at the harbor was free until the gates were installed two months ago. There is no agreement on an alternative plan to the gates. How parking works now:

(Gated visitor lots)

With Validation: Restaurants: Two hours of free parking* Shops: One hour of free parking* Dana Wharf: Four hours of free parking*

* with purchase

*

No Validation 0-15 minutes: Free Each half-hour: $2 Daily maximum: $18