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Direct: City Council Agenda, 4/8/13.
Fix Pacifica City Council Agenda article: City Council meeting, 4/8/13.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
20 comments:
RE: Beach Parking Fees
from the City Staff Report: " projected annual cost of the program is $379,000; projected revenue is $308,809. A final number will be based on actual experience..." Really ?? Yet another program that is already predicted to cost MORE than the revenue it will take in.
Well I predict that beach goers will park anywhere and everywhere to avoid paying parking fees. The aggravation and inconvenience to the neighborhood residents is difficult to evaluate in dollars and cents, but is sure to be substantial; monitoring or no monitoring.
Whats to stop something from just walking into the beach from say the Pedro Point Shopping Center or Crespi Drive?
Anon@4:47 pm: no cost to walk on the beach (at least not yet); just a charge to park your car. That's supposedly the reason why the surrounding neighborhoods are to be frequently monitored, so that they side streets don't get all jammed up with beachgoers' vehicles. But what a pain in the rear for residents and merchants alike to have to keep calling and calling to complain. We all know that parking congestion won't be the top priority for the Pacifica Police. After awhile, it will just be angry residents battling it out with out-of-towners over parking spots. "Let the Parking Wars begin!"
Just give the thing back to the state and let them protect the plovers and manage any parking program they choose to implement or don't choose to implement. The city of Pacifica can't plan a nap, let alone paid parking at LMBeach. No one will notice the change in management and we can save the low-ball estimate of $160,000 currently spent on beach management. I believe the lease comes up for renewal real soon.
@601 I'm not so sure parking enforcement for beach goers in the lots or on the surrounding streets will be the Pacifica PD's job. The revised ranger description indicates parking enforcement for beach users is the rangers responsibility. One of those conveniently vague things. Clarification might be useful before we start dialing. Time will tell.
It is clear from the job description that these 3 rangers will be very busy at our beaches and piers enforcing parking regulations, the leash law,
protecting the plovers and their habitat, educating the public, fighting litter, etc. I'd expect some very enthusiastic plover-pals will also be at LMB to help out. Oh joy!
Does the projected annual cost "of the program" include that $160,000 per year we are currently spending on the beach? Or is that in addition to the $160K? Unclear and you know what that usually means.
Either way this program is a money loser, not to mention a potential nightmare for nearby residents and merchants. Now, whom do we thank for this fiasco? All of council, some of council, friends of the plovers (they wrote and lobbied the Coastal Commission in full support of this doozy)? Somebody did it.
Blame the people who kept saying Pacifica was blowing it because we weren't charging for parking at the beach. Hint: it wasn't the "hippies and nobies" that Fix Pacifica is always whining about.
Hey, Do a shout out to council and see if they're monitoring Fix, again. You know, something like 'wake up Ervin' or 'good grief what is that on Stone's head?'
Looking at the losing numbers given for this paid parking plan, I'd really like to know if the $379,000 projected annual cost includes the $160,000 we supposedly are already paying for beach maintenance each year or not. Just how much are we really projected to lose on this thing? Anyone know where these details are to be found? Was it covered in the meeting?
As was explained tonight at the meeting, the city is expected to save $89,000 a year with paid parking. That is because the total cost of the program includes the money we already spend on the beach. So we will add 2 rangers, proper upkeep, plover protections, and still save $89,000 a year.
@754 Who to blame? IMHO, this is one of those collisions of perfectly reasonable-seeming ideas that unfortunately end up being way less than the sum of the parts. As usual in Pacifica, council seems oblivious to cause and effect.
We're embarking on this ill-advised plan because council felt political pressure to deliver a money-maker to prove they were new and improved. At the same time plover-advocates were beyond fed up with years of being ignored by a string of city councils so they took it to a higher authority who said no more dickin' around folks, you will protect the plovers.
Council couldn't get the paid parking permit from the Coastal Commission unless real plover protections, like that moveable fence on the beach and citation-writing rangers, were part of the deal. It was over a decade too late to just slap up some signs in strategic places. So all of it collides and woohoo we're doing paid parking! Only it's not exactly the money-maker council needs. Duh. And it will change the nature of our beach in ways we haven't even thought of yet.
It's problem-solving by creating other problems aka being oblivious to cause and effect. Yeah, we're doing that, again. And it's going to cost us. Again.
Ian, minus the millions of dollars the city lost in the last 30 years of not collecting any money, and paying to haul away all the garbage.
If Chris from Pacifica Index was at council, we can expect another great council recap.
The one option that was most feasible to me came at a meeting in 2005. The idea was to create a window sticker that one could purchase voluntarily for $30 to help offset the cost of the beach improvements. The local surf club and a lot of others including some long forgotten Yessies ( :) ) felt it was a quick way to generate revenue and as surfing is so tribal it would be an east sell.
Of course that suggestion required very little staff time, virtually not red tape, and would have been community driven rather than politically driven. Guess it never stood a chance but it was an elegant solution to a revenue issue.
Show me the money! I dare you.
Come on guys, it's not rocket science. What are we, in some kind of space and time warp?
All you have to do is visit Capitola or Santa Cruz. They have very good and workable plans to charge for parking near beaches and still protect neighborhoods from over flow.
Nyuk Nyuk, This is Pacifica, it might as well be rocket science.
Todd, I thought all those beach improvements were paid for by grants and federal hand-outs. Why would we need to offset with parking fees from some decal. Oh, don't tell me the funds came from the city. Mon dieu! It cannot be.
Lot of headaches, pissed off locals, and no income. We gotta have it!
@10:06 am: Agree that both Capitola and Santa Cruz do have controls in place. But the neighborhoods surrounding most of the beaches are quite a walk from the beach. Parts of santa Cruz have "sticker only" parking for residents and most places around Capitola that aren't metered are way,way uphill from the beach and inconvenient to walk from. Compare that with all the flat streets in the front of Linda Mar; just not the same. Yes, also agree that it is not "rocket science," but most of us Pacificans aren't well known for being rocket scientists either.
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