Bedford Parking Structure Fees Set to Increase

Free parking at the most popular parking structure in the city may be over as Beverly Hills looks to close a $2 million budget deficit in the city's parking fund. 

The Beverly Hills Traffic and Parking Commission on Thursday agreed to forward a motion to City Council to end one hour of free parking at the structure located at 461 N. Bedford Dr. between Santa Monica Boulevard and Brighton Way. If approved by the council, drivers will be charged $2 for the first hour and $3 for each half hour after that. 

"In Beverly Hills, there's only one main area where we have flexibility with our pricing, and that's parking," Commissioner Brian Rosenstein said. "We've been giving away parking for so long now that people no longer see it as a commodity with an inherent value, but as a right."

The current rate at the Bedford structure is one free hour and $3 for each half hour after that.  

The commission didn't approve an option to allow the first hour free with validation from merchants. Merchants have long opposed a validation option, believing it would anger shoppers if their validations were denied. 

"When we studied the issue of validation, the merchants didn't want validation," said former Mayor Steve Webb, who is also a former traffic and parking commissioner. He attended Thursday's meeting to support the parking fee increase.

Opposing the change was a representative of the merchants. She brought a petition signed by 120 businesses in hopes of retaining the current parking plan. 

"The elimination of one hour free parking on this lot, these merchants feel, will create an undue burden on their establishments," said Susan Berk, a paid consultant of the Western Triangle Merchants Association. "Remember, there will not be a Rodeo Drive without all the supporting [parking] to go with it."

The Bedford structure is being considered for a fee change is because of its heavy use. According to a parking and transportation staff report, the Bedford lot becomes full on weekdays as early as 10:30 a.m. and is usually full two to four times a day. 

Just a block East on Camden Drive sits another city-owned structure that is rarely full. 

A thorny issue raised at the meeting was what kind of businesses people parking at the Bedford structure are visiting. The space around the Bedford lot is an area with many medical offices. 

"The city has studied this, and the fact that the garage reaches peak capacity by 10:30 a.m. … says it all," Rosenstein said. "Clearly they are not retail shoppers since the majority of retail stores open at 10 a.m." 

The parking and transportation staff report also indicates that peak usage on Saturdays at the Bedford structure—nearly 800 cars—is half of its weekday peak usage. An estimated 90 percent of doctor's offices in the area are closed on Saturdays. 

"What the metrics tell us is that Bedford is largely dominated by medical parking," said Chad Lynn, the city's director of parking operations, who presented the parking and transportation staff report to the commission on Thursday. 

But Susan Berk, the consultant for the businesses, said Saturday's 800 vehicles tell a different story. 

"That is almost twice as much as the peak number for Camden [on Saturday]. To me this obviously shows that this lot is being used for retailers," she said. "Keep one-hour free parking in the Bedford lot. Encourage, help, promote businesses in our local community." 

According to the parking and transportation staff report, there are about 800 vehicles that park at the Bedford structure on a Saturday, compared to 400 cars parking at the Camden facility on the same day. On weekdays, more than 1600 vehicles park at the Bedford lot, versus just over 800 at the Camden location.

The Camden lot will still offer one hour of free parking. 

"The creation of a significant enough rate difference between the Camden and Bedford parking facilities… will encourage users to seek the reduced rate parking at Camden," the parking and transportation staff report stated. 

Beverly Hill is the only city studied in the report that doesn't seek any funding from nearby businesses for city parking. According to the report, many other cities charge businesses for the maintenance and operations of city lots.