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Jun 30, 2023

Early morning parking will no longer be free in Hermosa Beach

Want to have a warm cup of coffee, take a morning walk on the beach or catch a

Want to have a warm cup of coffee, take a morning walk on the beach or catch a wave? Doing so will now cost you more in Hermosa Beach.

The City Council, on a 3-2 vote this week, extended the morning hours of the 1,566 parking meters throughout the beach town, with motorists set to begin paying at 8 a.m. each day rather than 10 a.m. The meters will still stop at 2 a.m.

But residents could get a break with a proposed early bird pass that will allow purchasers to park from 8 to 10 a.m. The pass could potentially cost $180 a year, which averages out to less than 50 cents a day, according to Councilmember Justin Massey, who voted to extend the meter hours and proposed the annual pass for "early birds," such as surfers and volleyball players or other groups that regularly arrive early to the city.

"We want to encourage people to come down and be active and use our beaches, while at the same time accounting for the fact that visitors do come," Massey said. "Some of them not are not regular patrons, but it's important for us to be able to recoup from those users some of the costs of making the city available, by making our public resources available to them."

Besides Massey, Mayor Raymond Jackson and Councilmember Rob Saemann supported the extension. Councilmembers Mike Detoy and Dean Francois opposed it.

Detoy said he doesn't believe a change in the hours was needed. He also said he was concerned about the impact on residents who want to visit the beach and don't have a parking permit, as well as visitors who might have breakfast at Scotty's on the Strand or grab coffee at Java Man. They might be deterred from visiting, Detoy said.

"Anything we can do to spur the livelihood of our downtown coffee shops and breakfast shops and our salons," Detoy said, "and you know that 8 to 10 a.m. is a magical time in Hermosa Beach; (walk) around the community and you see all these young families out with dogs or strollers," Detoy said.

That was also a concern for some business owners and residents who spoke at the Tuesday, March 28, council meeting.

"I do think it has the potential certainly to negatively impact our early morning businesses, and even our later morning businesses," said resident Raymond Dussault, "if they are those people that are in the habit of coming here because they get that couple hours free, who then stay and patronize our retail establishments."

The city currently raises $3.9 million in revenue from the parking meters while incurring $4 million in expenses, said Hermosa Finance Director Viki Copeland.

Hermosa Beach, Francois said, is "heavily metered" compared to other cities.

"I think the other cities realize that it's not an income producing project," Francois said. "We spend more on enforcing it than we do taking money in."

But raising the meters to $2 and $2.5 an hour would create an annual revenue increase of more than $1.8 million, according to a staff report, while increase the hours of operation by two hours would result in a revenue increase of more than $815,000.

Coastal access, though, was also a concern for Francois.

"Every time we do something like this, we’re reducing coastal access," Francois said. "People have the desire to be able to come down early in the morning and (be at the) beach until 10 in the morning without having to pay for it."

During a previous meeting, the City Council raised parking meter rates to $2 per hour before 8 p.m. and to $2.50 an hour from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Previous rates were $1.25 to $1.50 per hour.

The last times rates were changed was in 2016, according to a city staff report, and the hike will bring Hermosa's rates closer to neighboring cities.

Manhattan Beach charges $2 an hour at its on-street meters and $2.50 for meters in county parking lots, according to a rate comparison of neighboring cities by Hermosa staff.

Redondo Beach charges $1 per 40 minutes on its bike path, North Harbor Drive, George Freeth Way and the Veteran Parks lot, according to a staff report. It also charges 25 cents for every 10 minutes, 10 cents for every four minutes and 5 cents for two minutes.

Redondo Beach's parking meter permits, which are numbered and require a California license plate, cost $110 annually per vehicle, with a four-hour limit.

In recent months, the Hermosa Beach City Council has been tackling parking issues in the town, including increasing the price of residential parking permits within the coastal zone and limiting how many a single household can have.

Though there is currently no timeline for when the meter hours will change, city staff said in a Wednesday email that they will let residents know before the new pricing goes into effect.

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