Businesses force city to limit parking

Elise Gee

COSTA MESA -- Thanks to one holdout, four other property owners on

Newport Boulevard have refused to share in maintenance costs for a new

city parking lot on 18th Street even though their employees and customers

will be allowed to use it.

But they won’t be able to park there as long as they want. On Monday, the

City Council approved a motion made by Councilman Joe Erickson to limit

parking in the lot to three hours at a time and to close the lot between

midnight and 6 a.m.

“It’s a disappointment that the property owners couldn’t come to an

agreement to help with this,” Erickson said.

The city paved and landscaped a dirt lot at 18th Street and Park Avenue

this year. The 55 spaces will provide parking for the police substation,

the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall and Lions Park. But businesses located

in front of the lot such as Condom Revolution and Mainly Seconds on

Newport Boulevard will also have access to it.

Because of that, city staff has been negotiating with the property owners

for the last year trying to get them to pay part of the $7,400 yearly

maintenance cost.

Four of the property owners were willing to share in the cost, said Matt

van der Linden, city engineer. However, Dennis Hoaglund and Daniel

Pietenpol, who own the property Mainly Seconds sits on, refused.

Hoaglund and Pietenpol could not be reached for comment but van der

Linden said they did to want to share in the cost because they had their

own parking spaces and claimed the city had been unresponsive in the

past.

Other business owners at the property said Mainly Seconds would actually

be the largest user of the city parking lot and should share in the

maintenance costs.

“Four property owners did say they would help pay,” said another property

owner, Mike Crossley. “Only one said he would not, and that particular

business is going to be the main user of that lot.

“And so the rest of the property owners were justified in saying ‘Hey,

we’re not going to pay for him if he’s not going to help,’ ” Crossley

said.

Erickson had raised concerns in June when the first report of the

negotiations was brought to council. He said that it wasn’t fair to

taxpayers to pay for a lot that would be used by businesses and urged

staff to try to get a contribution from the property owners.

“I think it’s a public parking lot and I would like to facilitate as much

public use as possible,” Erickson said.

Erickson made a motion, which council approved Monday, to limit parking

in the lot.

“It’s a disappointment that the property owners couldn’t come to an

agreement to help with this,” he said.