CORRESPONDENCE - 75B_WASHINGTON SQUARE

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I gelid" i June 18, 2013 Mayor and City Council City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 Re: PARKING PERMIT FEE INCREASE On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Washington Square Neighborhood Association we would like to express our unanimous opposition to the city's proposal to increase the parking permit fees from S46.23 to $85.31. When the permit program was initiated, its purpose aas to'-enhance the yualitY vfliite in the residential neighborhoods by reducing noise, parking congestion, traffic ha_ards and illegal actin=ities. This is accomplished by limiting the numher ofstreet parked vehicles on a residential block within a permit parking district. Ever1• effort is made to achiere this purpose within minimum impact oil adiUCettt Commercial establishments, residences and inst ittrttons... In a studs of parking issues in Washington Square according to Klichael Ortiz. Assistant Engineer 11 in Juk 20l 1, there were 432 current permits encompassing Towner, Freeman, Lowell, Olive. 15th, Washington and 10'x' Streets. What about the Sunshine Ordinance recend} enacted which was to provide residents with increased transparency and encouraging citizen participation at Cits Hall. No letter or notice ssas pros ided to residents of the neighborhood that this action was beini considered, thus we did not attend the council meeting on June 3`s to voice our protest. The justification for this huge increase should be made available for scrutiny by the affected residents, the meeting to address this issue should be made known to residents b} letter and the residents should be giren the right to address the Council on this matter. phis is a very lar4,e increase that would adversely affect household budsets of families that are already suffering from the economic dossnturn. and thus the quality of life in this working class neighborhood. Has the cost of entorcement and printing the guest permits almost doubled warranting this increase" You are defeating the purpose of the program to enhance the quality of life to residential neighborhoods b% enactinL* a nearly 200'o increase in annual fees. If residents are unable to attiord the increase, where are they to park" Will the only people able to park on the affected parking permit streets be for folks NOT from the neighborhood? Do we abandon the program altogether and remose the street signage Another point here is that man homes in the neighborhood haye .mall _,ara,es and drk ewavs which cannot accommodate the numbers of cars for their household. A ,,ig%tho?-17oe)e1 l ith Pride Post Office Box 4435 Santa Ana. CA 92701-4435 75b