RANCHO SANTA FE — Parking enforcement has begun within the Village and results are already being seen.“In addition to their regular duties, the California Highway Patrol has started to enforce timed parking regulations in the Village,” said Ivan Holler, Covenant administrator. “As with past enforcement efforts, issuing tickets is very likely to generate some controversy.”
Still, improvement has already been noted.
“Anecdotally, the staff has observed some of the vehicles that were frequently parked in violation of time limits have been moved to other non-timed street segments,” Holler said.
“Is it safe to go back to the Village for lunch?” asked Director Ann Boone.
Early results show that it just might be.
“During the lunch hour, we saw three to five spaces open in the core,” said Pete Smith, Association manager.
A parking survey by the Association staff, conducted over two weeks, found that one of the reasons for the lack of parking in the Village were business people and their employees who parked all day, every day in timed parking spaces. At its meeting on Feb. 2, the Association directed the CHP to begin issuing parking tickets, which cost $62.50.
After 60 days, the staff will conduct another survey to determine the results of the additional parking enforcement.
In other Association business, the board gave the staff permission to advertise the vacancies on the Roads and Planning Committee. Holler said at present, there is only one member left sitting on the committee.
“Unfortunately, because the Roads and Planning Committee was comprised of members of two previous committees, all but one of the committee members’ terms ended on Dec. 21, 2011, instead of being staggered,” he said.
He said the vacancies were advertised last October, but an insufficient number of applications were received.
“Re-energizing the Roads and Planning Committee is important for the Association in order to adequately review issues and projects that many impact the Covenant,” he said. “Examples of such projects include radar recertification of Covenant roadways, the EIR for the roundabouts and for Village Planning.”
In the past, the Association had maintained both a Roads and Traffic Committee and a separate Planning Committee to advise the board on those issues, but with the decline of public and private development projects of the last several years, the two committees merged in January 2010. It became the Roads and Planning Committee. It continued reviewing and offering recommendations on projects or issues that were previously under the umbrella of both committees such as traffic enforcement, roundabouts, road maintenance, Village master plans and the County General Plan Update.
Anyone interested in applying to become a member of the Roads and Planning Committee should contact the Association at (858) 756-1174.
