ANAHEIM : Police Ask for Neighborhood Parking Ban to Fight Drugs

The City Council today will consider a one-year ban of all street parking in a neighborhood where police say at least 100 drug dealers are plying their trade.

The neighborhood, a five-street area north of Orangewood Avenue and east of Haster Street, has 99 apartment buildings and about 5,000 residents.

The parking ban would be unprecedented in Anaheim and is designed to make it more difficult for drugs to be sold in the open, Police Chief Randall Gaston said.

“The cars on the street make the area much more difficult to patrol and makes it tougher for officers to detect who shouldn’t be there,” Gaston said.

Similar bans have been successful in reducing crime up to 70% when they were enacted in neighborhoods in Garden Grove and Westminster, according to a report from Gaston to the council.

If passed, the ban would result in the loss of 380 parking spaces on the street. Police estimate that 280 of the spaces could be regained if residents cleaned out their garages and parked in them. Police are also exploring other ways to create additional spaces.

In 1994, police were called to the neighborhood 1,790 times. Responding to the calls and the cost of two police officers assigned specifically to the area cost the city about $650,000.

In 1993, the department responded to 2,094 calls at a cost of about $592,000, according to Gaston’s report.

The ban would cost Anaheim about $4,500 to purchase and install new “No Parking Any Time” signs. The city is also expected to lose about $12,500 each year in street sweeping parking violations.

Gaston said approximately 85% of the apartment building owners in the area are in favor of the ban.

If approved, the ban would begin in May in phases. At first, the ban would affect only one side of each street to give residents time to adjust, police said.