Deputies will start enforcing a ban on overnight parking for oversized vehicles in a significant portion of downtown Bolinas in April, after supervisors this week unanimously agreed to phase in parking rules approved by community members over a year ago.
The regulations are part of a pilot program that will be re-evaluated in November 2021. They mark a turning point for downtown Bolinas, where many homeless people currently live out of their cars and travelers routinely set up camp to access the beach and surf.
District Four Supervisor Dennis Rodoni has taken a hands-on role in developing the rules in response to strengthening pleas from community members concerned about the chronic parking congestion. He spoke at the hearing on Tuesday when his fellow board members voted in unanimous support of the changes.
“I want to thank staff—the Community Development Agency, the Department of Public Works, county counsel—who worked hard on this for a number of months, maybe even years,” he said. “Also thank you to the community for being patient and at the same time, offering a lot of help, and to the Bolinas Community Public Utility District, which helped lead the way and had the Measure X advisory poll on their ballot. It’s been a collaborative effort, including from the coastal commission, to get the coastal permit in place and to see how this pilot works.”
The resolution approved by the board establishes two phases of changes. The first phase will prohibit overnight parking between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. for oversized vehicles in front of residential stretches on Brighton and Park Avenues and on the southern side of Wharf Road. Two 20-minute parking areas will be established in front of the Bolinas Store and the post office for all types of vehicles around the clock.
The rules do not define “oversized vehicle”; instead, they expressly allow three other types of vehicles—automobiles, pickup trucks and motorcycles—as defined by the California Vehicle Code. Those vehicles will continue to be able to park anywhere on the streets through the night, with the exception of the two 20-minute zones and in adherence with the existing rule that all vehicles move after 72 hours.
The second phase will be considered this November. Should data collected by that time demonstrate that the rules do not improve parking turnover, a second phase could be enacted, expanding the same restrictions to the west side of Brighton, the remainder of Park and the north side of Wharf.
Supervisors will consider the regulations again in two years, in November 2021, when they can either renew the coastal permit or discontinue the effort altogether.
The resolution is an iteration of Measure X, which residents approved by a 52-percent majority in 2018. The measure proposed a ban on oversized vehicles on the entirety of the three downtown streets between the sleeping hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Supervisor Rodoni was instrumental in helping BCPUD—which spearheaded gathering community input—to draft the measure’s language, which is based on a county enabling ordinance and was deemed enforceable by the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.
Yet the county’s effort to implement the advisory poll hit a roadblock last summer, when the California Coastal Commission indicated its disapproval, primarily over the possibility that the rules would limit public access to the coast—one of the key mandates of the Coastal Act. (For the rule to go into effect, there had to be agreement between Marin’s Community Development Agency—the party responsible for issuing a coastal development permit—and the coastal commission, the decision-maker in the case of an appeal from either a citizen or a commissioner.)
Sara Pfeifer, the coastal commission’s North Central coast planner, also questioned the efficacy of the proposal, asking how it would address parking congestion during the day and whether it would simply lead people to relocate large vehicles to other parts of town. She offered an alternative: a permitted overnight parking program for oversized vehicles.
County staff held firm that the regulation of oversized vehicles during the night would provide better parking flow. “The proposal intends to directly address the issue of parking turnover for day-time coastal access to Bolinas Beach and to provide for the orderly use of public property in order to encourage and enhance greater access to the coast in a manner consistent with the Marin County Local Coastal Program’s policies on public access in a reasonable, rational manner that also considers the impacts on local businesses and property owners,” they wrote in the coastal permit application.
After receiving Ms. Pfeifer’s letter last June, community members discussed Measure X with county and commission staff, and agreed to keep its integrity, with the concessions.
Data collection was a key aspect of Ms. Pfeifer’s letter, but the county has not included one of the components she discussed: an environmental justice assessment that she said was needed to address impacts on the disadvantaged and homeless.
Many Bolinas residents have expressed the same concern, considering there are not just transients but full-time and in some cases long-term residents who live out of their cars and will be affected by the rule. That was the main concern expressed by opponents of Measure X.
Yet no one spoke on the topic at the supervisors’ hearing on Tuesday. The one public comment came from a group of residents who call themselves the Bolinas Community Coastal Alliance. Some of the members are involved in a new committee exploring the possibility of pairing the parking rules with a residential permitting program that would further limit parking for visitors.
Michelle Sullivan, a member of the alliance, read from the group’s letter on Tuesday. “It is critical that the community begin to address, and demonstrate efforts to, manage the chaotic parking situation in Bolinas. On weekends and holidays, our town faces a tidal wave of visitors,” she said.
Although the group dislikes the phased element and said its members are worried about enforcement, it supports the effort. “Although we see a number of problems that may limit effectiveness and despite the inadequacies of the proposed plan, we support it moving forward and will assist to make it an effective tool,” she said.