Half Moon Bay nixes permit parking near beaches

During a meeting July 21, residents who live near the beach said visitors regularly relieve themselves on their property, litter items including used condoms and also recently opened a paddock near the beach that contains goats, sending them on the loose in the neighborhood.

Many residents urged the council to explore a permit parking program to help address the above impacts, and councilmembers have been amenable to the idea. But after learning more about the various impediments to implementing such a program, including approval by the California Coastal Commission, councilmembers now feel the effort is not worth undertaking.

Councilwoman Debbie Ruddock said the Coastal Commission likely wouldn’t approve such a program on the grounds it’s inconsistent with their mission of enhancing coastal access. And if the program were to be implemented, it would expose the city to lawsuits, she added.

“I think that whole route is a mine field,” Ruddock said. “It’s fraught with peril. It’s a long hard road. It’s going to cost us a lot of money and potentially a lot of money to defend ourselves in court. I don’t see this as a good course of action.”

Ruddock’s council colleagues agreed and instead charted on a new path forward during the meeting.

In the short term, the council wants to enhance strategies that have already been employed, including placing garbage cans and portable toilets at beaches and cracking down on rule breakers.  

“We will continue to do our best on enforcing bad behavior, putting garbage cans where they need to be and making sure they get picked up and making sure bathrooms and porta potties are open, clean and available as much as possible,” said City Manager Bob Nisbet, summarizing the council’s direction.

In the mid-term, the council wants new striping in neighborhoods to clearly distinguish where visitors can and can’t park. The idea is to clearly define parking spaces and create sufficient room between them to avoid bumper-to-bumper parking and other issues.

“It gets at the issue of density and potentially reducing the garbage impacts,” Ruddock said.

In the mid-term, city staff will also continue engaging Dr. Scott Morrow about potentially declaring the city’s beach access problem a health emergency to “give the council potentially more options moving forward,” Nisbet said.

As for the long-term approach, the city will push state parks officials to implement new parking management strategies and signs, including real-time ones with information about parking lot occupancy, at the beaches under their jurisdiction, which are often underutilized, according to a staff report. The goal is to lessen demands on the city-owned Poplar Beach, which is often packed, the report adds.  

“We heard general consensus I think that good signage and parking management are no-brainers, but there’s recognition those will take longer,” Nisbet said.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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