The Corona del Mar High School parking issue has long been a sore spot between residents and students, who use the surrounding neighborhoods to park during the school day, but at last week’s City Council meeting, the council passed stiffer parking restrictions in the area.
According to the staff report, the new ordinance will establish a “No Parking” zone on the north side of Vista del Oro between Eastbluff Drive and Mar Vista Drive, and the west side of Mar Vista Drive between Domingo Drive and Vista del Oro.
It will also limit the parking of vehicles on Arbutus Street, Aleppo Street, Alder Place, Almond Place, and Alta Vista Drive between Aleppo Street and Aralia Street and create a parking permit program between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., which is when the school is usually in session.
In June, city staff received a petition for residential parking permit restrictions on those streets to address the overflow student parking issues.
The new restrictions will greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the number of students parking on the street, according to the staff report. The one-hour limit would eliminate the potential of students leaving the campus to move their vehicles between breaks. The breaks for students currently occur every two hours.
The proposed hours match the school bell schedule, with early bell at 6:50 a.m. and end of instruction at 3 p.m.
Staff will periodically monitor the new parking restrictions. City staff recommends that the effectiveness of the Residential Permit Parking Program be reviewed at the end of a one-year period. This should be a sufficient period to determine if the time restrictions are achieving the goal of controlling student parking, or if modifications are warranted.
Staff will conduct parking counts after school begins and if there is additional parking count information available, it will be presented during the 2nd reading of the ordinance on Sept. 13. Implementation would follow 30 days later in October.
