Complaints Spur Proposal to Lower Parking Rate at Pier

Parking at Redondo Beach Pier could get a little cheaper.

For months, merchants on the refurbished pier have complained that the fees at the city-run parking lot are too steep and are keeping customers away.

So the Harbor Commission on Tuesday voted 4 to 2 to recommend to the City Council that the weekday and lunchtime fees be lowered.

Currently, weekday fees are $1.50 an hour with a $5 maximum. That would change to a maximum of $4. Weekend fees would stay the same with a maximum of $10 a day until Labor Day and then lower to $7 a day during the winter.

The commission recommended that lunchtime fees be $1 or $2 for 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Also, the validation system would be changed and merchants would pay 60% of the validation instead of 75%, with the city picking up the remainder.

Employees would be able to park in the main lot during weekdays for $10 a month instead of the current $30 a month.

Pier business owners contend that higher parking fees that went into effect last year have discouraged customers from frequenting the pier, which was damaged by fire and storms in 1988, then remodeled and reopened in 1995. The $11-million remodeling project built a sturdier pier that can withstand 20-foot waves. But tourism isn’t what it used to be.

Judy Milner, who owns Shark Attack, a gift shop on the pier, likes the idea of a bargain lunchtime rate, believing it would bring in more noontime customers.