Wed, Nov 25, 2009

Doom the dune, neighbors demand

by Carley Dryden
Published October 29, 2009


In hopes of getting the sand dune at Sand Dune Park closed permanently, neighbors bombarded city commissioners over the past week with horror stories about blaring stereos and car alarms, raucous teens, overcrowding and verbal abuse from visitors to the 100-foot dune.
Three weeks ago, City Council directed staff to take a two-prong approach to solving the booming attendance problems at the dune.
The Parking and Public Improvements Commission (PPIC) will tackle a meter and residential parking permit program, while the Parks and Recreation Commission will debate operational solutions, including permanent closure of the sand dune.
“The whole issue is the sheer number of people,” resident Cheryl Vargo told the city council in August. “It’s gotten completely out of hand.”

City Council temporarily closed the dune on August 14 and said it would reopen it when maintenance issues were resolved. Two months later, the dune remains closed. Earlier this month City Council said they would not reopen it until mitigation measures were in place.
Monday night, the Parks and Recreation Commission asked residents to describe problems they endured prior to the park’s closure, when attendance was skyrocketing. In July, 9,000 people visited the dune. As many as 300 people were counted on the dune at given times.
Some residents said they couldn’t even park in their own driveways. Others described watching “duners” throw up and urinate on their front lawns, and even ask residents if they could use their bathrooms.

“It’s gotten too busy and too sleazy,” said resident Victoria Peters.
Resident Mark Kemple said since the dune has been closed the neighborhood has returned to normal and families are no longer afraid to picnic in the park at the foot of dune.
Resident Gerry O’Connor recommended the commission identify operational goals, such as how many people should be on the dune, then lay out parameters for achieving them.
“Or else you’re just shooting in the dark,” he said.

Parking solutions
A parking plan that included 20-minute zones, 10-minute zones, red zones, blue zones, guest passes and temporary passes was presented to the PPIC last Thursday by City Traffic Engineer Erik Zandvliet. He said the plan is intended to discourage overuse of the park by making it inconvenient to park nearby.
“This is turning into a fiasco,” resident Will Arvizo said of the convoluted plan.
Other elements of the parking plan include installing meters along Bell Avenue between 27th Street and 36th Street, implementing a residential permit parking program in the area surrounding the park and forming a “double fine zone” to increase citation fines within the parking zone. The permit parking would be effective April 1 to September 30 (the busy season) and would restrict parking within the permit zone to 20 minutes during park hours.
Zandvliet said the city plans to increase enforcement in the area and ratchet up issuance of citations.
But even commissioners seemed to doubt the effectiveness of the proposed parking program.
Commissioner Carlos Vigon said the “intricate, multi-faceted program seems like a job for more than one person.” Zandvliet said the city would never get 100 percent enforcement.
“It’s the chance of getting a citation that keeps them away,” he said.
Zandvliet said if a significant majority of residents opt in to the permit program, parking intrusion would decrease to off-peak levels.
“People get used to it being a permit zone and quit looking. But we need full opt in or those [blocks] who don’t opt in will be bombarded,” he said.
Some residents simmered in their seat when they learned that guest parking permits would cost $5 per tag. One resident said if he had a party, he would need to buy up to 50 tags for guests.
“Why should I have to spend money to have my friends come to my house?” said resident Faith Lyons.

Other residents worried that the parking program would simply move the problem closer to Grandview Elementary School, where parking is already scarce for the families of the 700 kids who attend.
“Grandview is a fatal con,” said resident Gary Osterhout. “It should be enough to turn down the entire program.”
Residents questioned why the commission would even waste time debating the installation of a parking program, when closing the dune is an option.
“The problem has been 100 percent solved,” said Nancy Dirado of the recent dune closure.
Zandvliet agreed that since the dune has been closed, the parking situation around Sand Dune has settled down to what should be expected for the neighborhood.

“We don’t expect it to get any quieter,” he said. “You’re seeing the best conditions you’ll ever have.”
Parks and Recreation Director Richard Gill said the two commissions will have a joint meeting in January to discuss the proposed solutions. City Council will choose from the commissions’ proposals in February. ER

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