Huntington Beach hopes pilot program helps with Oak View parking crunch

There is a trick that Gerardo Fuentes observed growing up in the Oak View community of Huntington Beach: If a someone leaves a car parked right in the middle of a curbside parking space big enough for two cars, that person can effectively “save” a spot for use later.

“Everybody has a spare car to leave, so they can save a spot,” said Fuentes, 37, who lived in the community from 1990 until very recently, when he moved to Garden Grove. His parents and siblings still live in Oak View, which is also where his daughter goes to school.

“I’m not going to lie, sometimes my parents do it too, or my brothers,” he said. “I tell them, ‘If you don’t like it when somebody else does it, then don’t do it’ ... but it’s gotten to that point. If you want to go out, you’re kind of restricted, because if you lose your spot you’re kind of screwed for the night.”

Oak View is the predominantly Latino neighborhood that is bordered by Gothard Street on the west, Warner Avenue on the north, Beach Boulevard on the east and Talbert Avenue on the south. It is easily the most densely populated neighborhood in Surf City, and the city is now introducing a pilot parking program to try to alleviate some of the problem.

Vehicles parked along Queens Lane in the Oak View neighborhood of Huntington Beach.

(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)

The yearlong pilot program, set to begin in July, will offer 50 assigned parking spaces in a structure at Warner and Ash Lane to Oak View residents at a cost of $10 per month to help offset the cost of the program. The spaces will be assigned via lottery and available 24 hours a day; applications from interested residents are due in May.

The City Council approved a parking license agreement with Omni Properties LLC on April 5.

The square-mile Oak View neighborhood is home to about 10,000 residents, the vast majority of which live in crowded apartments. According to data provided by the city, 38% of renter households in Oak View are labeled as “severely overcrowded” — having more than 1.51 people per room.

“This places a strain on services and infrastructure, including residential parking, and the city is working to address the community’s growing needs,” Huntington Beach spokeswoman Catherine Jun said in an email. “Oak View residents spend considerable time searching for a parking space, and if you visit, you’ll always see drivers idling and waiting for a spot to open up. This has been an ongoing challenge that the program will try to address in the short term.”

Jun said Oak View residents were surveyed, and most indicated they’d be willing to spend a small fee for the parking spaces. If the pilot program is deemed a success, it could spread to other parts of the city.

Oak View resident Oscar Rodriguez, the co-founder of Oak View ComUNIDAD and a member of the Huntington Beach Planning Commission, said he sees the pilot program as a step in the right direction “just from the aspect of paying attention to what’s actually going on.”

“Prior city councils, I think they didn’t know how to connect with the community or what to do,” he said. “Right now, we’re seeing a lot more investment … and they’re noticing how bad the parking situation is. The issue of parking is definitely not going down, as the neighborhood gets denser and rents keep going up. Doubling up families is very common in our neighborhood.”

A postal service worker squeezes between his mail truck and parked vehicles along Queens Lane in the Oak View neighborhood of Huntington Beach.

(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)

Victor Valladeres, a community activist who co-founded Oak View ComUNIDAD with Rodriguez, said he sees the program as a Band-Aid of sorts. The real issue, Valladeres said, is finding affordable housing for Oak View residents.

“The root of it is lack of affordable housing, because of the substantial increases in rent that we’ve seen throughout the last almost decade,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of folks being displaced. We live paycheck to paycheck … It doesn’t have to necessarily be high-density. It could be medium-density, low-density, but just increasing more affordable housing [is important].”

Fuentes remains invested in the community, but he is skeptical that 50 parking spaces in the structure will make that much of a difference.

However, it is better than nothing to address what has long been a problem in Oak View.

“The alleys are crowded, or there’s always people double-parked when you’re trying to pick somebody up,” Fuentes said. “You get used to the whole thing, but sometimes it’s just too much and frustrating.”

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