5 Responses to “CdM Beach Parking Faces 50% Increase”
Comments
Jamie
February 24th, 2010
I love it - turning out traffic lights at night. LOL :) The ONLY place in the world I've been where they do that is Guatemala City. Seems to me the richest city in America can get by without turning out the traffic lights. LOL Regarding the fee increase. That's not a 50% increase - $8 to $15 is nearly DOUBLE. Doubling the parking fees is going to drive even more people to park on nearby streets above Big Corona. Particularly at off peak times like summer weekends - when they could probably charge $30 and still fill the lots. Maybe some of that money could be funneled to provide parking control in the summer, so that once the neighborhoods around Big Corona are a GRIDLOCK of day trippers from inland (who don't spend any money here) they could be routed instead of driving in circles hoping to score a non-existent parking space. For years the City's idea of parking control for Big Corona is to put a sign on the coast highway - while a line of cars stretches from the Big Corona ramp, down Ocean Blvd, up Marguerite 1/2 a mile to the Coast Highway, and often times clear up the highway creating a huge traffic bottleneck. They need to park a police car at Marguerite and PCH and re-direct traffic elsewhere once there is no place left to park below the highway. Duh.
Corona del Mar Today Staff
February 24th, 2010
The way I understood it, only the weekend or maybe just the peak weekend parking would go up to $15, from the current $10. I think the weekday $8 is the same. Sorry for the confusion. I was surprised about the lights thing, too.
Headliner
February 26th, 2010
The proper headline should be: "SoCal Residents Relegated to Street Parking as Newport Beach Makes Parking Lots into a Luxury Item for International Tourists". Newport Beach will probably face a decade of budget deficits because of the proportion of residential to commercial. Basically, Newport Beach has high traffic without sufficient monetization. Parking lot fees are not significant, and even Fashion Island revenue cannot cover the deficit. Mr. Kiff is using short-term revenues to solve the immediate deficit. The long-term impact is increased costs for widening the Heliotrope steps and hill pathway for street parkers. Street parking increases other costs and risks for the neighborhoods such as traffic control and pedestrian crossings. The teen-age cruising in late weekend afternoons indicates the risk. The neighborhood is being discounted as a trade-off to high parking fees. Here's the breakeven equation: Increase of 50% parking lot fees equals annual decrease of 10% home value over five years. Please comment about who wins?
CORONA DEL MAR TODAY » Prop 21 Could Mean Free Big Corona Parking — And A Hit To City Revenue
October 11th, 2010
[...] Newport Beach oversees management of Big Corona State Beach, including parking. Last winter, the City Council voted to increase the fees there from an $8 to $10 weekday/weekend rate, to $15 with a $25 peak rate for Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day holidays. (Read our story here.) [...]
Corona Del Mar Postcard
January 16th, 2011
The beach at Big Corona is beautiful Too bad about the increase in parking rates.
