New Parking Permit System Considered

Residents and commuters have devised some ingenious ways to get around permit parking restrictions in the three years since four neighborhoods were designated problem parking areas in 1993.

But the real clincher came recently when a police officer caught a Chapman University professor attaching a used fender bearing the prized permit to his automobile.

Now the police are hoping to introduce a new system that will be less prone to abuse but more inconvenient to residents--if the City Council will approve it.

Instead of paying a one-time fee of $10 for a black-and-white permit, residents would have to pay $6 for a new color-coded, serialized sticker each year.

The system would cost the city about $4,000 to kick off the first year, but would solve many problems, Police Chief John R. Robertson said.

“What has happened over the years since this started is tremendous abuses,” Robertson said. “Some people will Xerox the permits and actually sell them. The biggest area of abuse is around Chapman University.”

Parking around the school, notorious for its shortage of lots, was part of the reason for establishing the permit parking system.

“I think people forget that what was happening in neighborhoods [before permit parking] was unbearable,” Mayor Joanne Coontz said. “We needed to afford some kind of protection to neighbors because they were desperate.”

Police were hoping to win City Council approval for the new system last week. But council members backed off a decision in the face of protests by residents of the neighborhood, sending police back to find alternatives to a renewable sticker and to analyze whether all four neighborhoods still need permit parking.