The Long Beach Marine Advisory Commission indicated Thursday that it would not recommend installing paid parking meters at Alamitos Bay Marina to the City Council.
Commissioners worked Thursday to craft a letter to send to the council that detailed why it thinks that the recommendation to add paid parking by the city-hired consultant is not justified. A formal recommendation could come after the commission’s Feb. 10 meeting.
Commissioner Bruce Mac Rae read a letter compiled by the commission’s ad hoc committee dealing with the paid parking issue in the lots that wrap around the marina from Alamitos Bay Landing to Second Street.
Mac Rae said there are a number of concerns expressed by boat owners and businesses in the marina, including how the shift to paid parking could negatively affect those that use the marina regularly, existing leases that provide for free parking, and the neighboring 2nd and PCH shopping center that many have said is the source of any perceived parking problem.
“Sudden shifts increasing the costs to their customers and employees could result in a repeat of the 2nd and PCH parking problem, displaced to nearby residential areas in Seal Beach and Long Beach where parking is free,” Mac Rae said.
The letter indicated that commissioners believe the conclusion reached by the city’s consultant was done with incomplete or misleading data to support the need for paid parking. Mac Rae noted that only two days of surveying were done during the fall, a time of the year when boat owners are less active, and before a lot of the businesses that exist today were fully online.
Like other commissions, the Marine Advisory Commission serves an advisory role to the council, which has the final say.
The 2nd and PCH development opened in October 2019 and replaced the Seaport Marina Hotel, which had occupied the corner since the early 1960s.
While the center has its own parking structure and offers validation for those staying for less than 90 minutes, it charges $2 every 20 minutes and a $30 maximum to park there.
Those opposed to putting paid parking meters in the Alamitos Bay Marina parking lot say the paid lots at the shopping center have led to customers and employees parking in the marina lots for free, but this is not something that has led to a shortage of parking in the vast marina parking lots.
“I don’t feel as a boat owner that we need parking meters,” said boat owner Lanny Vilensky. “There’s only one person who benefits from paid parking—it’s the people who build them and maintain them.”
Boat owners also believe that they already pay for parking through their slip fees that pay back the $114 million in bonds that were issued in 2015 to fund improvements to the marina. Slip fees can be as high as $3,600 per month.
If the council ultimately decides to go forward with a paid parking program, boat owners are hopeful that an appeal to the California Coastal Commission, the entity that governs the state’s coastline and any developments on it, would ultimately block it to preserve free public access to the coast.
The final wording of the draft letter could change before it’s sent to the City Council but the commission was resolute in its stance that paid parking meters are not something they support.
“We’re making a statement,” Mac Rae said. “This is not good and we’re not happy.”