Parking losing priority, drinking Culture integral, consultant says
by Dan Blackburn
To park, or not to park: that is one big question facing Hermosa Beach planners as they try to imagine the city’s future landscape.
The Hermosa Beach Economic Development Committee heard a consultant’s report Tuesday on potential changes to parking, citywide. That was followed by an update on the city’s market and economic development plan, which explores options that include a reduction in parking in favor of pedestrian-friendly areas.
Both plans go before a joint study session of the PlanningCommission and City Council this week, with public hearings andCoastal Commission consideration likely in the fall.
Consultant Martha Miller told the committee that parking-related zoning amendments could “lift barriers to development of a variety of housing types,” and provide exemptions for small-scale commercial establishments and changes of property use. After noting that beach visitation “was at an all-time high in 2020, despite closure of numerous public parking areas,” Miller said the city’s current parking requirements “create a number of unwanted side effects. Among these, she said, are a reduction in options for reuse of existing buildings and small or awkwardly-shaped lots; a diminishment of alternatives to automobile use and pedestrian environments. All this, Miller asserted, “adds to the cost of living” and explains why “cities such as yours are increasingly turning to other mechanisms as ways of addressing parking.”
Proposals headed for the council will include allowing a change of use without requiring additional parking, provided there is no change in a building’s square footage; support for on-site, outdoor dining by reducing specific parking requirements; and flexible parking solutions like tandem, valet and mechanical parking.
In a subsequent presentation of a “draft executive summary,” Jim Musbach of Economic & Planning Systems told the committee his organization’s research showed that parking requirements in Hermosa Beach “often prove to be a major barrier to economic growth, smart
urban design, and maintaining the vitality of the historic downtown area.”
Musbach noted that employee parking utilizes capacity that “could serve patrons and visitors,” and that tennis courts at Civic Center could be converted to structured parking.
Restaurant owners, according to Musbach, “are less concerned about parking due to the growth of alternative transportation options.”
Business owners and others interviewed by Musbach and his associates were “mixed in their assessment” of the downtown parking garage, with some suggesting that it often is “largely empty” during off-peak periods and “occupies a valuable piece of real estate adjacent to The Strand.”
Parking uphill from the downtown commercial district would increase foot traffic past businesses, he noted
Musbach also noted that “onerous parking requirements likely made the hotel proposed on the Mermaid site financially infeasible.”
Public safety concerns regarding the late-night bar scene “have subsided significantly” over the past 10 years, Musbach said, and many“view the city’s drinking culture as integral to its identity and heritage.”
Working from home during the pandemic is a trend likely to continue after Covid-19 is gone, he said, which would increase “market support for local businesses and restaurants.” ER