LAGUNA NIGUEL : Parking Ban to Make Space for Bike Lanes

To make way for bike lanes in both directions, parking will be banned along the dozen roads throughout the city that have more than four lanes, the City Council decided this week.

After a recommendation from the Traffic Commission and the goals laid out in the city’s General Plan, the council voted to restrict almost all parking along streets classified as major or primary roads.

The ban affects 18 miles of roadway along Alicia Parkway, Aliso Creek Road, Cabot Road, Camino del Avion, Crown Valley Parkway, La Paz Road, Marina Hills Drive, Moulton Parkway/Street of the Golden Lantern, Niguel Road south of Alicia Parkway, Pacific Island Drive, Pacific Park Drive and Paseo de Colinas.

Public Works Director Ken Montgomery said the order would go into effect when signs and striping are put into place to mark the bike lanes. The $40,000 project requires hiring a contractor through a bidding process and it will be several months before the work is done.

“One of the city’s goals has been to provide bike lanes and to do that we need to restrict parking along these four- and six-lane, divided roads,” Montgomery said. “No sense in having a bike lane if there’s a car parked on top of it.”

The council granted seven exceptions to the parking restriction, which amount to about one mile of road. Parking will continue along the west side of Alicia Parkway near the courthouse, on Camino del Avion near the staging area of the Salt Creek Bike Trail, along the south side of Marina Hills Drive at Marina Hills Park, and the west side of Pacific Island Drive near the nature trail entrance south of La Brise.

Because of sparse parking in nearby apartment complexes, parking will also be allowed on both sides of Pacific Island Drive just south of Highlands Avenue, the west side of Golden Lantern north of Marina Hills Drive, and the south side of Paseo de Colinas east of the driveway entrance to Villa de Cerise.