Judge Says Free Sunday Parking Has Higher Good

Newport Beach can continue to give free beach parking -- a rare and valuable commodity in town -- to churchgoers on Sunday mornings, a federal judge has ruled.

John Nelson, a Lido Isle resident, filed suit in January alleging that the city is violating the church-state separation clause of the 1st Amendment by giving worshipers special rights: free Sunday-morning parking at metered spots near four churches.

But U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter issued a 10-page opinion late Friday that Newport Beach’s parking meters “serve plausible secular purposes” by easing traffic congestion Sunday mornings on neighboring residential streets.

“The primary effect of the exemptions is neither to advance nor inhibit religion,” Carter wrote.

“While the exemptions alleviate parking problems for those seeking to attend church services, the metered spaces are not reserved for the churches.”

About 200 of Newport Beach’s 2,200 parking meters allow the free parking Sundays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. near four churches on the Balboa Peninsula. Usually, the metered spots require 25 cents for 15 minutes.

The city argued the free parking allows churchgoers to use metered spots on busy thoroughfares first before clogging residential streets.

At Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the parish parking lot has space for just 43 cars, while services attract more than 300 worshipers.

“The church was here long before the parking meters,” said Msgr. Daniel J. Murray, the church’s pastor, who added that many locals ride their bikes to Mass to circumvent the parking problem.

Nelson, 55, who calls himself “a lone ranger who believes in the Constitution of the U.S.,” said he is considering an appeal.

The court battle has cost him $20,000 so far.