Parking Meter Flap Leaves City Holding the Bag

PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. —  It all began when Malcolm Smith dashed into a seaside shop in Pacific Grove to buy a pair of sneakers.

The street outside had always offered 90 minutes of free parking. But last November, the city installed parking meters. Smith ended up with a $25 ticket. And that steamed his wife, Patricia, a local activist.

She called the California Coastal Commission, which responded by ordering the city to cover the 100 new meters with bags because they had been installed without the commission’s approval. The city refused and the two agencies are now fighting over whether the meters are legal. At stake is hundreds of thousands of dollars in parking revenues and fines.

“I knew it was in the coastal zone and they needed a permit,” Patricia Smith said. “It was something I was going to raise anyway. When my husband got the ticket, it just ticked me off.”

The city argues that the Coastal Commission never said that permission was needed, and that putting bags over the meters while the issue is resolved, which could take months, would give shoppers a free ride during the busy spring and summer months.

“We have taken the position that if we bag the meters, we will have no parking enforcement at all,” said Pacific Grove City Manager Ross G. Hubbard. “The reality is, this is our parking area, our enforcement area.”

But it is also an area that falls squarely within the Coastal Commission’s authority to protect public access to the seashore. The commission has become increasingly active in regulating meters and parking in coastal areas as a way of aiding access, particularly in Southern California.

Steve Monowitz, permit supervisor for the commission’s Central Coast district, said the city of Pacific Grove was told that commission approval for the meters was needed.

“If someone is undertaking coastal development without required permits, we ask them to stop in any situation,” Monowitz said. “That is the request here.”

The commission gave Pacific Grove until Saturday to place bags over the meters. Although the city says it has no intention of covering up the meters, it plans to ask the Coastal Commission for an administrative waiver allowing the meters to continue operating until the matter is resolved.

The meters, the first ever in Pacific Grove, are situated just beyond the entrance to the popular Monterey Bay Aquarium. They ring the American Tin Cannery Premium Outlets and meet up with a line of meters running through neighboring Monterey. Before installing the meters, Pacific Grove removed 30 signs defining the old parking time limits.

Hubbard said city police and planning officials first contacted the Coastal Commission last summer about the proposed meters. Hubbard said Coastal Commission officials at first said no permit was needed, then later said the city would be advised if a permit or other review was required.

“After several months of not hearing anything, we went forward,” Hubbard said.

Patricia Smith said that when she called the Coastal Commission to complain, she got a surprised response. “They didn’t know these meters had gone in until I called,” she said.

Monowitz said he told city planning officials about the need for commission approval. When he checked back after learning the meters had been installed, he said he was told the city had expected to receive a permit application in the mail and went ahead when none arrived.

“I don’t think that is an appropriate response,” Monowitz said. “It is always the responsibility of the property owner to submit the necessary applications.”

Hubbard said the battle with the Coastal Commission was ironic, because the city installed the meters partly to give tourists and residents better coastal access. City officials said that much of the 90-minute free parking in the area was being used by workers in nearby businesses and attractions who would periodically move their cars a few spaces as time limits expired.

“We would see employees in tandem come out and switch spots,” Hubbard said.

The result was that visitors and residents often were unable to find parking in the popular area, Hubbard said. Since the meters have been installed, he said, employees have shifted to other free parking spots farther away, leaving the metered spots for tourists and locals.

Patricia Smith scoffs at the coastal access explanation, saying the City Council discussion about installing meters revolved almost entirely around generating revenue.

Pacific Grove leases the meters for $45 each per month, a total of $54,000 per year. The meter charge is $1 for each of the first and second hours. The price goes up as the duration increases. And nobody gets a break because the city installed “smart” meters that sense when a car leaves and cancel out any remaining time.

The city estimated the meters would generate about $150,000 annually, much of it during the busy spring and summer season, for a net profit of about $100,000.

Since the meters went up in November, the city has collected about $50,000. It takes scofflaws seriously: More than 1,000 meter violations have been issued since November at $25 each, a total of $25,000. At least one citation remains unpaid. Smith has taken the position that without Coastal Commission approval, the meters were installed illegally, which means the city should not be allowed to collect fines.

Whether those fines and the meters themselves hold up may now depend on what the Coastal Commission decides.

Meanwhile, the city continues to run its meters, issue tickets and try to collect fines. In December, after the deadline to pay the citation passed, the city sent Malcolm Smith a notice that his fine had increased to $47.

“I’m not paying,” Patricia Smith said. “And they can’t collect it.”