Pacific Free Parking Reduced to Four Hours

Update (February 4, 2015): On Feb. 3, 2015, Huntington Park suspended the pilot parking program due to, according to Danny Bueno, the Assistant to the City Manager of Huntington Park, feedback from residents. In the mean time, the Huntington Park City Council searches for “the real parking issues” that should be remedied.

Motorists can leave their cars in the city’s parking lots for an unlimited amount of time without using parking permits.

Parking meant for the hundreds of daily Pacific Boulevard shoppers is no longer free. This year, the City of Huntington Park began to enforce a new parking policy that allows for only four hours of free parking from 9 A.M. to 8 P.M. (Resolution 2014-41). The policy, which is a pilot (test) program, reflects the city’s efforts to decrease the lack of Pacific Boulevard parking.

The policy became effective January 1, 2015, and was enforced on February 1, 2015 so that violators receive parking citations. To avoid citations, Huntington Park residents can purchase monthly overnight, daytime, or 24-hour parking permits for $30, $30, and $45, respectively, on the first week of each month at City Hall or the Rita Parking structure.

The purpose of this policy, according to Huntington Park Vice Mayor Karina Macias, is to discourage nearby apartment complex owners from renting out garages as apartments (converted garages). Instead of using garages, which have been illegally rented out by their landlords, some tenants park in the nearby public parking lots. The city believes this to be the reason for the lack of parking in these lots.

Macias states, “Some of the garages of some of the people that live around [the apartments] are converted, so a lot of people living there... yeah, I get it’s a living quality situation, but that’s also why there’s also a lot of lack of parking in the streets.”

Also, these converted parking garages violate the Los Angeles County Building Code that Huntington Park has adopted. The building code stipulates a ban on the conversion of any structure without the required, unexpired permits (Ord. 2010-0053 § 2, 2010; Ord. 95-0066§ 3, 1995).

Libra junior Daniel Santos, who lives near a Pacific parking lot, explains that the policy leaves nearby residents without “the security of looking out the window and seeing [their] car[s],” since now they will need to park farther.

If the policy works, there will be growth in the businesses of Pacific Boulevard. If not, many residents will be left discontented.

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