Larkspur looks to stiffen parking rules near Redwood High School
Neighbors of Redwood High School in Larkspur say a permit parking program hasn’t deterred students from clogging their streets. Now the city is looking to step up enforcement.
Under a proposed amendment to the program, which covers the Larkspur Marina and Heather Gardens neighborhoods, there would be no more warnings for first-time offenders. Instead, all violators would receive a citation carrying a $100 fine.
“We do think that the data shows that getting that $100 fine is pretty significant,” City Manager Dan Schwarz told the City Council on Wednesday.
Schwarz said that under the existing program, first-time violators are issued a warning. A second offense triggers a $100 fine. A third violation carries a $250 fine, and a fourth violation and onward means a $500 ticket.
Through May 16, Schwarz said, the Central Marin Police Authority issued 143 warnings; 41 fines of $100; 13 fines of $250; and one fine of $500.
“You see a significant drop off in the violations from $100 to $250,” Schwarz said. “So we think the fact of getting a cash violation is having an effect.”
Parking has been a big problem in the area for years. After the city received continuous complaints of speeding, reckless behavior and littering, all involving teens, the city instituted the pilot permit parking program, which took effect in the 2018-19 school year. The aim was to restrict parking to residents and their guests only.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, things quieted down. Now that school is back in full, residents say the problem has returned.
“They felt that one of the issues is the fact that the first ticket is a warning,” Schwarz said. “So it may not be serving as quite the deterrent we’d like it to serve as.”
Additionally, Schwarz said the existing method is burdensome for cadets and parking enforcement officers who do the ticketing.
The police department had to create a database to track vehicle license plates to determine how many times the driver violated the parking restrictions. Schwarz said that in the field, the process took about five to 10 minutes for the officer to determine whether to issue a warning or a fine, and for how much.
Central Marin police Chief Mike Norton said the agency only has enough resources to assign one parking enforcement officer to cover all of Larkspur for four hours a day. He said the officers do proactively go to the neighborhoods, and the number of citations is higher than he expected they would be.
Residents alleged that savvy teens carpool and rotate through their cars to avert the financial penalties. Others said there were instances of residents arranging guests passes for their friends’ children to use.
Lewis Tanenbaum, president of the Larkspur Marina Homeowners Association, said residents support the new proposal.
“I don’t think we want to be punitive,” Tanenbaum told the council. “We just want to regain control of our neighborhood because the system that you have in place technically sounds great, but since it’s not being enforced, it’s not operative, it’s not really a system.”
However, resident Jerrold Bellman is opposed. He said it would be a burden to have to worry about making sure all guests have parking passes.
“Myself and my other residents around me will suffer financial consequences when a simple warning would suffice,” he said.
City Council members said they like the proposal.
“I think manpower is valuable at this point,” Councilmember Scot Candell said. “And if we can minimize the amount of time spent doing a task, I think it’s our responsibility to make that possible.”
Mayor Gabe Paulson agreed.
“If we do find a lot of abuse with people using these as transferable passes or something, I think we could revisit later,” he said.
The proposal will return to the City Council for adoption at its next meeting.