Preferential Parking Sought : SMC Neighbors to Begin Petition Drive

Residents plagued by traffic and parking congestion around Santa Monica College will hold a community meeting Tuesday to begin a petition drive seeking preferential parking within three blocks of the school.

The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Grant Elementary School, 2368 Pearl St., said Duke Kelso, spokesman for the newly formed Santa Monica Safe Streets Committee.

Kelso said block captains have been appointed to conduct the petition drive near the college at 1900 Pico Blvd.

Seeks Restrictions

The drive seeks to restrict parking to residents on streets within three blocks of the school, he said. If that limitation creates parking problems on the periphery of the preferential-parking zone, the committee would seek added preferential parking in those areas, he said.

College officials estimate that the school needs 2,120 more parking spaces in the daytime and 1,360 more at night to accommodate campus needs.

Outraged Residents

Residents are outraged because students who cannot find a place to park on the campus spill onto residentials streets to look for parking places. Students pull abruptly into driveways to grab a parking place, creating safety hazards for neighborhood children and pedestrians, Kelso said.

A college-appointed parking advisory committee has suggested that the school build more parking facilities on campus. Its recommendations will be presented to the college’s board of trustees on Monday.

However, residents oppose providing more parking on campus because they say it will only attract more cars.

Leaflets Planned

Kelso said that after the community meeting, block captains will distribute leaflets on the drive for preferential parking.

He said the committee hopes to obtain about 8,000 signatures.

“People have waited 10 years for promises to be met” and now are taking action themselves to solve the chronic problem at the college, he said.

The college has instituted some reforms recently, including beefing up parking-law enforcement in the adjacent residential neighborhoods and adding about 550 more spaces on campus.

But the 40-acre college campus has limited space for more parking, and no obvious locations are available off-campus where students could park and be shuttled to school, officials said.