Parking could get tighter

Too many people are using their garage space for storage and paving over their front yards in order to park their cars, trucks, RVs and boats, according to the Costa Mesa Planning Commission.

Commissioners passed a proposal to prevent homeowners from using more than half of their front yard spaces as driveways in hopes that code enforcement can crack down. The other part of the twofold law would require people building or adding onto homes with more than five bedrooms to have three garage parking spots, one more than the current two-spot minimum.

The City Council will have an opportunity to vote the proposal into law tonight.

“Some people keep putting a bunch of concrete in their front yard and think that they can park just because there’s a pad there. There was clearly confusion between code enforcement and planning staff on what they could and could not enforce,” Planning Commissioner Jim Righeimer said.

Many of the situations are being created by RVs and boats that are parked in driveways that have been widened to fit them, according to Chief of Code Enforcement Jim Golfos. It’s an issue all over the city, Golfos said.

On Joann Street, near Estancia High School, many of the driveways have been widened beyond the width of the garage in order to accommodate RVs, cars and trucks, some of which are rarely driven.

John Urrea, who has one such large driveway, uses it to regularly park three of the family’s four cars. His garage is filled with other things, and he frequently parks his own truck on the street.

He says the driveway was already in its present configuration before he bought the house and believes the city has no right to make him change it or restrict the use of it.

“Just about everyone on the block has more than 50% of their front yard paved,” Urrea said.

If the new law were to pass, code enforcement would probably look at driveways with a more critical eye and forbid people from parking in illegal places, Golfos said.

However, homeowners with illegally wide driveways would not be forced to tear them out unless they wanted to make an addition to their house that required a building permit, according to Senior Planner Minoo Ashabi.

The concern is mostly an aesthetic one, Golfos said, and not a pressing concern as far as safety or the amount of parking on the streets.

“There are quite a few houses that have four or five vehicles in the front yard. Pretty soon the whole front of the house looks like a used car lot,” Golfos said.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.