Question 7: Would you support a parking structure near the beach area?
Perla Mendoza
The idea of a parking structure has been discussed in Seal Beach for years. Before deciding whether to build one, I believe we need to examine the issue together.
How many additional cars are we trying to accommodate? Is the need year-round, or is it concentrated during busy weekends, holidays, and summer months? Could adding more parking attract more vehicles and create another parking problem?
These are important questions, and the answers should come from residents, businesses, and the City working together.
If the community ultimately determines that a parking structure is needed and wanted, I would be open to that request and encourage exploring a public-private partnership. Under this model, a private partner could potentially finance, build, and operate the structure under terms established by the City, reducing the immediate financial burden on taxpayers.
The location should also be a community decision. Any proposal would require careful study of its cost, traffic impacts, environmental effects, feasibility, and level of community support.
Most importantly, I stand by what I said last week in the SUN: before we build more parking, let’s maximize what we already have.
One suggestion is to replace our “Beach Parking” signs with eye-catching, easy-to-understand “Public Parking” signs. We should also add better directional signage to our all-day parking lots and make it easier for visitors to understand where they can park. I recommend trying these changes, measuring whether they work, and then reassessing.
This is my perspective, but I want to hear yours. I’ll continue walking through our neighborhoods and meeting with residents. If I miss you, please call me or join me at a meet-and-greet. To represent you effectively, I need to know what you think.
I respectfully ask for your vote. Ballots should be arriving this week.
Vote Perla Mendoza for Seal Beach City Council, District 1.
Perla Mendoza
perlaforsealbeach.com
(714) 471-8388
Matthew Terry
No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.
To be honest with you I was very tempted to just say no 400 times.
But to make it perfectly clear, no parking structures in the beach area, no parking structures anywhere in Old Town.
As an architect, I have designed many parking garages and lots, so here is why I don’t think we should build one in Old Town.
First, it wouldn’t add that many more parking spots. Subterranean levels are not feasible here, so the best the city could build is a parking garage with a ground floor and one floor above it. So the only gain is from the second floor, and once the circulation and ramping are accounted for, the city wouldn’t even be able to double the amount of stalls from the current total.
Second, it would be way too expensive. At today’s construction pricing, parking garages on the two beach lots would probably cost around $30 million, which at best would add no more than 375 parking spots to the roughly 400 spots that currently exist between the two of them. Also, on top of the initial building costs, there would be a hefty yearly maintenance cost as well.
Third, the beach area is a bad location to add more parking. Pulling more car traffic three blocks into Old Town’s residential streets is the last thing we should be doing.
I am going to repeat myself a little from last week’s question, but I think it bears repeating. The city needs to do a better job managing the parking we currently have, and to do that, it needs to broaden the way it looks at all of the parking in Old Town. Whether it be the beach lots, Main Street, the lots adjacent to Main Street, the 8th Street lot or residential parking, right now the city approaches each as its own separate, isolated piece. All parking in Old Town needs to be looked at from the perspective of how it fits into the broader puzzle because it’s all connected.
I was on the Citizen-Council Parking Advisory Ad Hoc Committee, so I have ideas for how we can do things better and make sure we are using the parking that we have as best we can.