Three Hours Is Enough to Shop

This is a three-hour parking lot and has been for approximately 20 years since the Santa Monica Place mall opened. There are posted signs throughout the parking structure that clearly state that if you are beyond the three-hour limit, you will be cited. People can move their cars from one space to another trying to skirt the policy, but parking personnel mark the tires of vehicles that have been parked for the time period.

That structure serves Santa Monica Place, which is an enclosed shopping area. The reason it has this three-hour limit is that people will often park there but shop in other areas, such as the Third Street Promenade. They go shopping, have dinner, go to the movies. Santa Monica Place wants to make sure their shoppers have time to shop at the mall and allows three hours for it. This allows the parking spaces to be turned over to serve as many people as possible. This also keeps open parking intended for shoppers and not taken up by those not shopping.

I assume that the mall has studied just how much time people need to shop. It has been there long enough and it didn’t just make up this time limit. Santa Monica Place management want this strictly enforced. There are other paid parking lots that can be used as well.

The city council imposes the parking fees and this is a standard dollar figure for the majority of citations given in Santa Monica.