Re “Council Should Deny Church’s Parking Petition on Monday”
Sept. 4, 2014
Via Email: City.Clerk@CulverCity.org
City Council
City of Culver City
9770 Culver Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232
Re: In Support of Request from Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church to Change the Existing Residential Parking Restrictions on Farragut Drive
Hearing: Monday, Sept. 8
Dear Honorable Councilpersons,
According to the city's official courtesy notification, at Monday’s upcoming Council meeting, the Council will engage in a “discussion” on the “Existing Permit Parking Restrictions on the 10700 Block of Farragut Drive and Consideration of a Request from Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, 4427 Overland A venue to Change the Existing Residential Parking Restrictions.” Interested persons, without restrictions, are allowed to participate in that discussion.
This office represents Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church. In addition to representing the church, I, with my wife, have been a resident of Culver City for 34 years. My three children are all products of the Culver City school system. I am also a member of Temple Akiba.
Grace Lutheran thanks the Council for opening up the discussion on the recently adopted and unique parking regulations, and on the impact of those regulations.
The church's request for reasonable street parking restrictions, among other things, is an effort to obtain freedom of worship on the same terms and conditions allowed to all other houses of worship (Christian, Jewish and Muslim) in Culver City.
These regulations are unique in the following two ways:
(1) They deny affected and specific parties the right to challenge the rules, and,
(2) They provide what is, in effect, private parking on public streets for residents in the defined “district,” a situation that does not exist anywhere else in Culver City.
Right to Challenge the Rules: Property owners must be given the right to challenge regulations that affect them adversely. However, under the restrictive procedures of the new standing rules adopted within the last year, only “residents” (as defined by the regulations) are allowed to appeal or seek changes in the regulations with the assistance of the city's Engineering Dept., if the Engineer so chooses. (The City Engineer may also initiate an attempted change as the Engineer sees fit.) The appeal process is limited to residents and households in the district (which consists of one block on Farragut) regardless of the impact that said regulations have on property owners or others who occupy premises adjacent to the “district.” The regulations were drafted in a manner that treats the 10700 block of Farragut as if it were a separate municipality, treating all not defined as “residents” as outsiders of the carefully defined “district” who have no voice. There is no basis for this preferential treatment, or for excluding the church.
Since it is necessary for a property owner to maintain standing to challenge regulations that affect them adversely, some procedure must be in place to accommodate those challenges. If the regulations do not allow it, the property owner must have the right to appear directly before the City Council to effectively address any grievances caused by any onerous city regulations.
No prohibition of standing could possibly mean that the church, a property owner and occupant of land in Culver City, adjacent to the relevant district, has no right to bring the matter directly before the Council which ultimately has the power to determine the limits of its powers or determine how best to address this issue without unconstitutionally denying a property owner a voice in this process.
Private Parking
Public streets are for public use. Public use certainly includes nearby residents, businesses and institutions. This should not be allowed to be circumvented by vociferous opposition by anyone or a small group of residents to an unreasonable outcome. Creating extreme disparities in contiguous or adjacent streets in parking regulations to protect individuals who are not in need of such protection is completely inequitable. In addition, these regulations should not have a negative impact on the rest of the neighborhood. The current regulations create special benefits, and in effect, private parking for a small class of homeowners to the disadvantage of the rest of the neighborhood.
Things Have Changed
The original legitimate concern that caused the adoption of such unique and restrictive parking rules was the existence of a tennis club. The members of that club inundated Farragut and created a need for restrictive parking. That tennis club departed decades ago, but the parking restrictions remain. The church, meanwhile, occupied its spot long before these parking restrictions occurred, and there were no problems. These restrictions were designed primarily to deal with a tennis club that no longer exists, and parking problems that also no longer exist. As discussed below it appears that the adult school played a role in extending the “permit parking only” time zones without any study justifying such an extension.
Existing and Proposed Rules:
Existing Rules
The current parking restriction on the relevant block on Farragut Drive, just to the west of the alley behind Grace Lutheran, east of Coombs, is as follows:
1. Parking with a permit only from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday. (Note: This parking restriction is so unique that people get tickets because they believe that the restriction must say from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.)
2. No restrictions on Saturday or Sunday. The church is requesting the following change:
A. 2-hour parking Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. ; no limit on parking in the evenings
B. No restrictions on Sunday parking.
DISCUSSION
1.) Exclusive Private Parking Lot on City Property:
Why do the residents of this street (the subject block) virtually get their own private parking lot, on city property 5 days a week? This block on Farragut is zoned R-1; virtually
every house on the street has a 2-car garage, and parking for 2 or 3 vehicles in their driveways. Commercial property abutting residential property is the norm in Culver City. There is no place else in Culver City that has the type of all-day parking restriction that exists on that segment of Farragut. It may have been justified 30 years ago when patrons of the tennis club on Overland parked in large numbers in the neighborhood, but that is no longer the case. That club has been gone for decades, replaced by property with parking. This block of Farragut was “grandfathered in” when the new parking guidelines were adopted about a year ago. Although the conditions that existed in the ‘80s that caused the special set of restrictions no longer applied, the restrictions were not changed to the standard of allowing 2-hour parking to anyone during the day due to the “sensitivity” of the district. Since when does the “sensitivity” of a district override the fact that the facts or conditions that caused the special restrictions to be inserted in the first place no longer exist?
It is the church's understanding that when the “permit only parking” was instituted in 1982, it was because of the tennis club. The permit-only parking hours was from 8 a.m. to
6 p.m. In 2004, the permit-only parking hours were extended from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. because the adult school was established on Overland.
Prior to a parking restriction being implemented, a relevant parking study is usually completed. There is no reason to believe that the newly adopted restrictions in 2004 were implemented pursuant to any study.
2.) Casual Visits to the Church Are Impacted:
There is no good reason to prevent anyone visiting the church, whether a neighbor from Franklin or Coombs or someone having a cup of coffee at the coffee shop on Overland from being able to park on Farragut street for a short period of time between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., particularly when Franklin, one block to the north, has no restrictions at all, except street sweeping restrictions.
3.) No Other House of Worship Has These Limitations:
The church has not found any other “house of worship” in the City of Culver City that has to contend with this type of parking restriction in its neighborhood. In fact, to make access easier, the city has a policy of not placing parking meters on the streets in front of churches (Christian), the King Fahd Mosque (Muslim), or Temple Akiba (Jewish). Clearly Grace Lutheran is being treated differently due to a few overzealous neighbors on Farragut who like having their own parking lot at the city's expense. Mr. Les Greenberg takes the position that it does not matter to him that approximately 30 parking spaces sit empty all day and most of the night. His response is “So what? That only means that the preferential restrictions are accomplishing [his] goal.” Implicit in his statement is that he does not care that Grace Lutheran (or his fellow citizens or adjacent streets) is being treated differently than all of the other houses of worship in the city. He ignores the simple fact he and his neighbors are being treated specially with the use of city property that no one else has in the city. He and his supporters treat this parking privilege as a vested right.
4.) Grace Lutheran Church Is an Asset to This Community:
The church will be celebrating its 70th year in the city in 2015, Culver City's 100th anniversary. The church has been in Culver City much longer than any of the residents who surround the church. The church is proud to offer its facilities and services, offered at no charge to charitable organizations that need a place to meet. These organizations include, various AA organizations, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Meals on Wheels, Grace Diner, and the list goes on. In the past year, the church has served over 20,000 meals to local seniors, homebound individuals, and the homeless in the Culver City area. Church members give their time and energy as volunteers in order to benefit the entire community.
5.) Not Seeking Special Treatment:
The church is not asking for special treatment. The church is asking for the same treatment that is given to every other house of worship in the City of Culver. Houses of worship have special needs, where convenient parking for limited periods during the week, as well as the weekends, helps them to carry out their mission in serving the community. The church is asking that it be allowed the opportunity to park on the streets of the community it serves, with reasonable limitations, as do all of the other houses of worship in Culver City. That in fact is the City' s policy and the church would like to see that policy extended to Grace Lutheran.
Conclusion
The church believes that the facts or conditions that caused the special restrictions (permit parking from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and then 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.) to be adopted in the first place on Farragut Drive no longer exist; the tennis club has been gone for years and there
is no evidence that the adult sdchool is or was a parking problem. Grace Lutheran respectfully requests that the Council modify the parking restrictions on Farragut, removing the “permit only” parking from Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The proposed restrictions should be (1) Monday to Saturday, 2-hour parking, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., no limit on parking in the evenings, and (2) Sunday, no restrictions. This would move the parking restrictions closer to the parking in the rest of the neighborhood which has no restrictions at all, except for street cleaning.
Mr. Phillips may be contacted at ilbert@ilbertphillips.com
