RB Planning Board delays Westwood parking petition
Rancho Bernardo Community Council will review Thursday night a resident-initiated petition to alleviate Westwood’s parking problem.
The council will meet at 6:30 p.m. June 23 in the Rancho Bernardo Library’s second-floor community room, 17110 Bernardo Center Drive.
The Rancho Bernardo Planning Board decided last Thursday to postpone its decision on the same community-led petition for 90 days, in order to allow all involved parties a chance to work together toward a solution.
The board voted 10-1 (with one member, Philip Corn, abstaining and two members, Sherry Guthrie and Vicki Touchstone, absent) to vote again on the issue in 90 days. The petitioners will be allowed to resubmit their petition without change, or can submit a new solution if one is reached between the homeowners in Westwood, the Waterbridge condominiums and theWestwood 1 and Westwood 2 townhome complexes.
The board initially voted 8 to 3 in favor of not approving the petition. The petition seeks to impose a parking restriction on certain Westwood streets affected by Waterbridge residents parking overnight. If approved, it would restrict parking to a two-hour maximum between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. This would affect all vehicles, including those of homeowners.
Waterbridge residents parking in Westwood has been an ongoing issue for 10 years, said residents at several community meetings. Residents have complained that Waterbridge residents, lacking enough assigned parking at their complex, park on the neighborhood streets at all hours and leave trash behind, as well as block trash bins from being picked up. There have also been accusations of Waterbridge residents using drugs, having sex in cars and committing crimes while parking in Westwood.
Westwood residents have also expressed concerns about parked cars lining both sides of the street, which could cause emergency vehicles to be unable to maneuver down the street and get to an emergency.
Several residents of Westwood and the surrounding areas spoke both in defense of the petition and against it, including Susan Van Winkle, the HOA president of the Westwood 1 townhomes, who asked that the petition be delayed so she and her fellow HOA president from Westwood 2, who couldn’t attend the meeting, would be able to have input on it.
Van Winkle said that while Westwood 1 and 2 were not currently impacted by the parking situation, she feared that it would be if the two-hour overnight parking restriction went into effect, as Waterbridge residents might circumvent the restriction by parking on the streets in front of the townhomes instead.
Members of the planning board said they deferred approving the petition because they thought giving a deadline of 90 days would put pressure on the Waterbridge condominiums to find a solution. It would also force the various involved groups to come together and find a solution, said Sonny Googins, a member of the planning board.
Another member of the planning board, Rebecca Weide, said that the parking restriction may not even be an effective solution, as it still doesn’t mean paramedics could get through. “I don’t think this is the correct solution for everyone involved,” said Weide.
Robin Kaufman, vice-chairwoman of the planning board, said that the parking ban would be ineffective as there are not enough police to enforce it, and said it could be days before an officer is free to come out and look at the parking situation. “(The City of San Diego) does not have enough police to be visiting every two hours,” said Kaufman.