SANTA CRUZ — After years of pushback from community activists and a more recent nudge from a state coastal oversight body, the city of Santa Cruz recently removed signage banning overnight vehicle parking on several Westside streets.
According to a press release late last month, the city is “in the process of reviewing signage located in coastal zones that requires permitting by the California Coastal Commission.” The signs, barring street parking from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Delaware Avenue, Schaffer Road and Natural Bridges Drive, according to city spokesperson Erika Smart, were removed Feb. 22.
Based on public records requests by community activist Reggie Meisler and which were shared with the Sentinel, Santa Cruz police issued more than 3,100 parking tickets on those same three streets, at $48 per infraction, from 2017 through 2022. Those tickets, most heavily focused on Delaware Avenue, mounted to nearly $150,000 in fines.
Recreational vehicle owners, particularly those who do not otherwise have housing, have long used the streets in question to park for extended periods. Homelessness issues advocates and local neighborhood groups have sparred over the proliferation of RV parking in the area for years, bringing the debate everywhere from Santa Cruz City Council and Coastal Commission meetings to out on the streets, particularly during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns.
Even earlier, in February 2019, former Councilmember Drew Glover proposed temporarily ending enforcement of overnight parking bans he said had been in place along Delaware Avenue since 2004, while a comprehensive safe parking program could be developed. At the time, then-Central Coast District Manager Susan Craig told the Sentinel that there were no permits on record for the city’s overnight parking ban on Delaware Avenue and that her staff had contacted the city to give itself a coastal development permit for the signs.
The no-parking signs, however, remained up through this year.
Glover’s parking ban softening proposal proved unpopular with the council majority and in the larger community, and was later used as a bullet point in literature seeking Glover’s successful recall from the council.
Change in direction
Reached for comment Thursday, Meisler, a member of both Santa Cruz Cares and the Santa Cruz Homeless Union, said he was unaware that the signs had been removed and planned to personally verify the fact. If true, he said, the news was welcome.
“I want affordable housing for everyone, but in the meantime, we’re going to need to figure out how to let people exist while they’re poor,” Meisler said. “I think vehicles are a very easy way to let people have some kind of shelter in the meantime.”
In response to a Sentinel inquiry this week, Central Coast District Coastal Planner Kiana Ford confirmed that her office had received inquiries from community activists around the signs and ticketing/towing of individuals. Coastal Commission staff, she said, did not believe the signs had ever received proper permitting approval.
“We reached out to the City on this and they have since removed the unpermitted signs,” Ford wrote to the Sentinel. “With the Oversized Vehicle Ordinance still under Commission review, those provisions are not yet enforceable within the coastal zone. We plan on continuing to work with the City on these issues.”
This latest parking ban debate runs separately but in parallel with an ongoing appeal of the city’s Oversized Vehicle Ordinance — specifically, a not-yet-implemented portion of the approved law that would ban large-vehicle street parking from midnight to 5 a.m. daily, citywide. In July, the Coastal Commission unanimously agreed to a finding of “substantial issue” with the ordinance. Since then, the ordinance has remained pending placement on an unspecified future Coastal Commission agenda as a “de novo hearing.” Some portions of the ordinance, including the September launch of a 14-vehicle safe RV parking program at the National Guard Armory, have progressed, however.
While the city investigates the legality of its overnight parking signs, which fall within the purview of the California Coastal Commission and therefore require a coastal permit, the roads’ 72-hour parking restrictions remain in effect for all areas and will continue to be actively monitored and enforced, as will all applicable vehicle and municipal codes, according to Smart.
“Signage will be restored as soon as possible in coordination with the Coastal Commission,” Smart wrote.
