Parking Restrictions Sought Near College

Fed up with parking problems near Moorpark College, surrounding homeowners will ask the City Council tonight to toughen parking restrictions in their Campus Hills neighborhood.

Residents say the streets become a battleground at the start of each semester as students ignore parking restrictions and infiltrate their neighborhood.

The streets clear out about 2 1/2 weeks later, but only after students have been stung with $40 citations.

The aggravation generated during those periods, however, has residents fuming. Not only are their streets congested, they say students litter the neighborhood and block driveways.

“My personal concern is when they take off in their cars, they don’t realize that this is a kids’ neighborhood,” said Erna Cortez, who lives on Milne Court.

The Campus Hills Home Owners Assn. has asked the City Council to change the one-hour parking restrictions on Milne and Trollop courts, and portions of University Drive, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to no-parking during those hours.

Residents and college officials say students park in the surrounding neighborhood to avoid paying $30 a semester parking fees or because it’s more convenient.

But student body President Natalya Vasser disagrees, saying there are only 3,000 parking slots for the college’s 12,000 students.

“They are parking on the street because there are no parking spots and they need to get to class,” she said.