City Council Tuesday night authorized an increase of parking rates in a popular Riviera Village lot, as well as an extension of enforcement hours in the area.
The increase comes at the end of the city’s fiscal year, as Redondo Beach looks for new ways to generate revenue. Some residents weren’t happy, calling the city’s actions “revenue hungry.”
“This ‘revenue hungry’ city needs to pay for staff and police and fire and street sweeping and tree trimming,” Mayor Steve Aspel said in response. “We have to raise that money somehow.”
Parking rates at the Riviera Village Triangle parking lot, located between South Elena Avenue and Avenida Del Norte by Riviera Village, are currently a dollar per hour.
Redondo Beach Police Department Chief Keith Kauffman recommended bringing rates in line with meters in the rest of the city with a hike to $1.50 per hour, along with increasing enforcement hours to 9 p.m. Currently, enforcement begins at 9 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. Kauffman also noted that the Triangle sees 83 percent occupancy between 6 and 9 p.m.
Staff estimates that the combined changes would result in an increase of $250,000 annually.
The earliest the rate changes would take effect is August 5, in accordance with city ordinance regulations.
District 2 councilman Bill Brand disagreed with the notion of increasing enforcement hours.
“It distinguishes us from Hermosa, and makes Riviera Village popular for dining,” he said. “I know we need to find ongoing revenue, but I’m disappointed to see rates go up…I don’t think we need to wrench more money out of diners and patrons of Riviera Village.”
But Mayor Steve Aspel said that business owners aren’t thrilled about the increase, but aren’t “crazy against it.” He also argued that the Triangle is often used by customers of Torrance-based businesses, such as Rock and Brews. “It doesn’t help us to give them cheap or free parking.”
The measure passed, three votes to two.
The night also saw increases for other city programs. Parking fees at the waterfront Pier and Plaza Parking Structures were raised, increasing the first hour rate from 50 cents to one dollar, matching the regular hourly rate. Community Development Department fees, which include services such as building permit costs, were increased by nine percent.
City Council, however, struck a plan to increase fees on annual resident, non-resident and Riviera Village employee parking passes.
Budget adoption tabled
The evening was planned to include the adoption of the 2016-’17 Fiscal Year budget. However, an inadvertent violation of California’s open meetings law by District 5 Councilwoman Laura Emdee caused the discussion to be tabled.
Emdee believed that the proposed budget and proposed Capital Improvement Plan were separate agenda items, and treated them as such when speaking to Ginsburg about the CIP, and District 3 councilman Christian Horvath about the budget.
California’s Brown Act restricts councils from discussing items between enough members to create a quorum behind closed doors. In Redondo, three council members could create such a situation.
“So out of an abundance of caution, I would like to suggest that we have the public hearing extended to next week,” she said on advice of City Attorney Michael Webb. Webb said it was clear there was “no collective concurrence” between the three.
The discussion and adoption of the new budget has been pushed back to next week’s meeting on Tuesday, June 28.
