L.A. County suspends some parking fines amid coronavirus spike, stay-at-home order
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will temporarily stop enforcing street-sweeping parking restrictions as residents are again being urged to stay home amid an unprecedented coronavirus surge.
Along with street sweeping, officials announced that vehicles with expired registration also will not be cited for the time being, though they did not say how long the relaxation would last.
The department’s decision applies to unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Individual cities can set their own rules, though, and street-sweeping enforcement is continuing in the city of Los Angeles and elsewhere.
“The recent stay-at-home order issued in early December brought to light once again the need for additional parking across Los Angeles County,” department officials wrote in a statement Wednesday.
Southern California and the Central Valley are by far the state’s biggest contributors of total COVID-19 deaths in the last week.
Enforcement of other violations — such as blocking fire hydrants; parking in a red zone, fire lane or improperly in a handicap space; blocking driveways or parking in a way that disrupts traffic; as well as metered parking in business districts — will continue.
In the city of Los Angeles, where officials had suspended ticketing for parking violations for nearly seven months before resuming in October, officials have launched a program that gives residents a $20 discount if they pay some parking citations, including residential street sweeping, within 48 hours.
The Early Pay LA program will remain in effect until June 30.
“No one wants to see that ticket on their windshield, but Early Pay LA gives people a chance to get a break on the cost if they can pay quickly,” Seleta Reynolds, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, said in a statement.
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Both the city and county of Los Angeles are under a state-mandated stay-at-home order issued to halt the spread of COVID-19, which is infecting, hospitalizing and killing Californians at levels never before seen in the pandemic.
That order, which is in effect through at least Dec. 28, imposed a series of new restrictions and limitations on businesses and public spaces in affected communities, and encourages residents to stay home as much as possible — except for work, outdoor recreation or to access essential services.
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