Beverly Hills has moved closer to prohibiting certain developers from participating in the city’s preferential and overnight parking permit programs.
The decision was made by the Beverly Hills City Council Liaison/Traffic & Parking Commission Committee at its June 24 meeting, during which commissioners and councilmembers approved a proposed update to the Beverly Hills Municipal Code.
The proposal will now go before the entire City Council.
The update, which was described as “timel[y]” in a staff report, will apply to new developments that provide a reduced number of on-site parking spaces than would otherwise be required by the city’s code because they have availed themselves of parking reductions or exemptions in state law.
Residents of those developments would be prohibited from obtaining preferential and overnight parking permits.
Additionally, the property managers, owners or other representatives of those projects would be required to notify future residents of the restriction in writing and obtain a signed acknowledgment from the would-be inhabitant.
Councilmember Lester Friedman, who serves as a liaison on the committee, said at the meeting that the the update was being considered, in part, due to California’s stated premise that residents who live near public transportation do not need as much parking.
“The reason that this is being considered is to be in concert with what the state has told us is necessary; that is, that people are not going to be needing as much parking since they’re near a high transit zone area,” he said. “Personally, I think that premise is a faulty premise, but that is what the state of California has told us, and, of course, we need to be in concert with what those in Sacramento have said.”
Friedman added that the update would also serve to prevent a problem for residents in neighborhoods where developers have provided less parking for their buildings’ inhabitants.
“We don’t want to have the situation in our city where the residents who aren’t building suffer because there is overcrowding of vehicles,” Friedman said. “So … if a landowner or developer decides that they don’t think that they can be in compliance with the requirements that the Beverly Hills code has, it’s not going to be a burden upon the residents who have nothing to do with that project.”
The prohibition will also apply to developers who use reductions to upgrade or remodel in a way that causes them to become ineligible for the permits. In those scenarios, existing parking permit holders would be allowed to keep the number of permits they already have have; however, they would not be allowed to obtain more.
A concern was raised by Hadar Geller, vice chairperson of the Traffic and Parking Commission over the possibility of the prohibition being applied to landlords of smaller properties who seek to add an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU). Under the proposed update, those individuals would be subject to the prohibition on parking permits.
“It feels very punitive to the owner,” she said. “He’s adding value to his property by adding this ADU, but now he’s losing value on his units.”
Councilmember Craig Corman, who serves as a liaison on the committee, suggested that there may be room to tweak the regulations for such property owners.
“I think it’s worth a discussion whether the addition of a single ADU should trigger the prohibition … because I think the projects the council were thinking about the most were not individual units being added to underparked duplexes or single buildings,” he said. “It was the construction of many new units.”
The committee decided to move forward with the provision with some small changes, and at the same time, requested that staff refine language surrounding how the update would affect ADUs. The latter issue will be brought back for further discussion.
