Driven to create more parking

In some heavily populated neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a reliable parking space is as valuable as a panoramic view or gourmet kitchen.

And with every new development, the parking crunch seems to only get worse.

Now, L.A. is about to try a radical solution.

Officials this week took a first step in allowing residents to park in front of their driveways. The idea would be to allow residents with multiple vehicles to park one car in the driveway and another on the street in front of the driveway.

“Our beach communities especially are so congested year-round,” said City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who proposed the program for his coastal district that includes Playa del Rey, Venice and Mar Vista.

Rosendahl said his goal would be to start a driveway parking pilot program in Playa del Rey by April and, if successful, expand it to other parts of the city.

The plan marks the latest effort by L.A. and other big cities to sqeeze in more parking spots. There’s been controversy for several years in Westwood over the practice of “apron parking,” in which multiple cars park in apartment driveways, sometimes taking up parts of the sidewalk.

The current California Vehicle Code does not allow parking on the street in front of driveways but does provide an exemption if cities create a permitting system.

Currently, a ticket for blocking a driveway costs $63. Car owners who want to park in front of their own driveways would probably have to purchase an annual permit, said Bruce Gillman, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. The cost of the permits has not been set, but an annual preferential permit costs $34.

Parking experts and even some city officials caution that it will take time to determine the effectiveness of driveway parking. But they believe it’s worth a try.

“I think it seems like a sensible policy if it’s your own driveway,” said Donald Shoup, a UCLA planning professor who specializes in parking issues. “Naturally, you don’t want anybody else doing that at your house.”

On a quiet, tree-lined street in Mar Vista this week, residents said they welcomed anything that would ease the parking problems.

Annika Dehennis, 36, said her husband, Marty, received a ticket last year for parking in front of their driveway when no other spaces were available on the street.

“A lot of garages and driveways around here are old-fashioned and can barely fit even one car, so we’re forced to park on the street,” she said. “It’s a great idea. I would be all for it.”

Another resident, Howard Amos, said scarcity of on-street parking is particularly bad on trash collection days. But the 73-year-old said that for safety reasons, he would be hesitant to get a permit.

“Because of my age, sometimes the paramedics come for health-related problems,” he said. “What if cars in front of the driveway blocks them? I don’t like that idea.”

And then there is the potential confusion it could create. “If you start seeing driveways blocked, a lot of people — especially tourists — might just assume that it’s OK to do that anywhere,” said Tara Kowalski, another Mar Vista resident.

One of the few cities in California that allows cars to block driveways is Long Beach. The permit application there got even easier last January after the city scrapped previous restrictions that required garage inspections and getting approval from two-thirds of neighbors who share a curb. Permits can also be transferred to other cars registered at the same address.

Such a program could ease residential parking in L.A. but would leave the larger problem of demand exceeding supply unsolved. L.A. operates about 40,000 metered parking spots throughout the city. Compare that against the almost 2 million cars registered and more than 1.3 million commuters who drive to work.

Some experts, including Shoup, have recommended such solutions as more paid permit parking and more meters, which could encourage more people to walk, ride bikes or take public transportation.

But Gillman said that not all areas of L.A. are plagued with a parking problem.

“There are so many innocuous ways to say this works for everyone. It doesn’t,” he said. “There are valid safety concerns. And at this point, you don’t want to introduce a program that could drain money.”

shan.li@latimes.com

Times staff writer Martha Groves contributed to this report.