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Smart Voter
Los Angeles County, CA March 8, 2011 Election
Measure BH-P3
Three Hours of Free Parking for Residents
City of Beverly Hills

Ordinance - Majority Approval Required
Final Election Results

Fail: 1542 / 28.6% Yes votes ...... 3855 / 71.4% No votes

See Also: Index of all Measures

Information shown below: Impartial Analysis | Arguments |

Shall an ordinance be adopted to provide Beverly Hills residents with free parking for three hours daily and a discount of 50% from evening flat rates at particular City-owned parking facilities?

Impartial Analysis from Laurence Wiener,
City Attorney
Background

The City of Beverly Hills operates eighteen off street parking facilities. Fees for parking in these facilities are set by the Beverly Hills City Council. During business hours, the City currently provides free parking for one or two hours at each parking facility, except for the recently constructed facility on Third Street at Foothill Drive. At most facilities, the City has implemented a flat rate of five dollars for parking after 6:00 p.m. The City Council has the authority to change these rates and to set parking fees at any rate that the Council deems appropriate.

Proposal

Measure 3P amends the City's Municipal Code to require that Beverly Hills residents receive three hours of free parking per day at City-owned parking facilities that were in operation before June 30, 2008 and at the Beverly Canon Gardens (Montage) parking facility. Thus, this measure would not affect the parking facility at Third Street, the parking facility under construction on Crescent Drive, and any facility constructed in the future.

The three hour free parking privilege for residents would not apply to metered parking, monthly parking permits, daily parking passes, special events parking, commercial valet storage, early bird parking and other special parking rates offered by the City, including evening flat rate parking. Measure 3P provides that residents would receive a 50% discount on evening flat rate parking.

The City Manager may implement rules for the administration of the three hour free parking program and to prevent misuse of the privileges granted by the program.

Effects

In the short term, this Measure would provide residents with three hours of free daytime parking per day in the affected City-owned facilities and would not otherwise alter the free parking and posted parking rates currently offered to all motorists at City-owned parking facilities. Residents would also be provided a discount of fifty percent from evening flat rates.

In the long term, the City Council would retain its current authority to set parking rates for its facilities, except that residents would be provided a three hour free parking privilege per day and a fifty percent discount from evening flat rates.

The City's Director of Parking Operations has estimated that the Measure will result in a revenue loss of $250,000 to $400,000 annually.

Voting

A "yes" vote on Measure 3P favors providing Beverly Hills residents with a three hour free parking privilege at the affected City-owned facilities.

A "no" vote on Measure 3P opposes providing Beverly Hills residents with a three hour free parking privilege at the affected City-owned facilities.

Measure 3P must receive more votes than Measure 2P in order to take effect.

  Official Information

City of Beverly Hills
Nonpartisan Information

Ballotpedia
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Arguments For Measure BH-P3 Arguments Against Measure BH-P3
Vote YES on 3P - THREE HOUR FREE PARKING for Beverly Hills residents - the RIGHT solution placed on the ballot unanimously by your City Council!

Don't be confused by the developer sponsored measure - that one is fiscally irresponsible and will cost Beverly Hills millions at a time when the City already faces severe budget deficits and has made dramatic cuts to police, library, and other essential city services.

Yes on 3P ensures our City is able to continue providing the essential public safety and community services we all depend on!

YES on 3P is the RIGHT free parking solution for our City - protecting residents, NOT corporate developers:

-Yes on 3P ensures mandatory, THREE HOUR FREE PARKING daily and discounted evening parking for Beverly Hills residents. This benefits our entire community - not just G&L Realty Corporation.

-YES on 3P supports Beverly Hills businesses by encouraging residents to shop locally and take advantage of retail and service opportunities - while enjoying THREE HOURS of free parking.

-YES on 3P which protects our property values and quality of life, without fiscally handcuffing the City Council and by allowing them to adjust non-resident rates in a financially responsible fashion.

After $27 million in city budget cuts in the last several years - including reductions in library hours, police officers and street maintenance, there is still a $2 million deficit. This is no time for developer giveaways or special deals! Join us - local business owners, firefighters, police officers, educators and long-time residents in voting YES on 3P - protect Beverly Hills.

"Yes on 3P is a fiscally responsible alternative to the G&L measure that supports our businesses while giving our residents more free parking without increasing taxes - vote YES." Eliot Finkel, City Treasurer and Chair, Citizens Budget Review Committee

/s/ Barry Brucker, Vice Mayor
/s/ Nancy H. Krasne, Councilmember
/s/ John Mirisch, Councilmember
/s/ Sharona R. Nazarian, PsyD, Human Relations Commission Chair
/s/ Brian Rosenstein, Planning Commissioner

Rebuttal to Arguments For
If 3P is such a good idea, why didn't the City Council enact 3 hours free parking for only Beverly Hills residents years ago?

Instead, our City's policy for decades has been 2 hours free parking for everyone who visits Beverly Hills to shop in our stores and dine in our restaurants. Why change it now? 3P was hastily written by City Hall bureaucrats and insiders who have been monkeying around with our public parking for the past 5 years.

Don't let the insiders who created the budget deficit scare you. They know the funds generated for parking go into a separate Parking Enterprise Fund and are not used for fire, police, paramedics or schools - but they insist on scaring voters rather than being honest. Beverly Hills residents are too smart to fall for political rhetoric.

As local business owners, we know that no business in Beverly Hills could survive if we only served Beverly Hills residents. 3P will send our customers who live outside Beverly Hills to Century City, Santa Monica and the new trendy stores on Melrose. Does this make sense at a time when we need to increase our City's revenue?

Did you know that the insiders who signed the ballot arguments for 3P pay hardly any Beverly Hills city taxes or fees - but, they get free parking in every City-owned parking garage for as long as they want - every day of the week.

Preserve 2 Hour Free Parking for everyone.

Vote NO on 3P.

/s/ Simon Gamer, 42 year Beverly Hills Business Owner, 25 year Beverly Hills Resident
/s/ Janet Refoa, 26 year Beverly Hills Resident & Business Owner
/s/ Mehdi Nayssan, 20 year Beverly Hills Business Owner, 30 year Beverly Hills Resident
/s/ Nelson Chan, Owner, Nelson J Salon
/s/ Paul Amiraslan, 16 year Beverly Hills Resident and Business Owner

VOTE NO ON MEASURE 3P

Measure 3P allows the City Council to take away 2-hour free parking from most of the people who shop in our stores and dine in our restaurants and replace it with a discriminatory permit parking program exclusively for some Beverly Hills residents.

Measure 3P claims to provide 3 hours of free parking - but you need to read the fine print. The devil is ALWAYS in the details.

Measure 3P:

  • Does not guarantee any free parking for non-Beverly Hills residents who are the backbone of our retail and restaurant businesses;
  • Creates a new City bureaucracy, potentially costing Beverly Hills taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to administer an untested parking permit program for Beverly Hills residents;
  • Restricts free parking to just two cars per household. It will discriminate against families and also against those who do not have cars, depriving them of free parking when they are driven by friends;
  • Increases the deficit in the City's Parking Enterprise Fund.

Over the past 5 years:
  • Parking garage policies have changed from 2 hours to 1 hour and back to 2 hours in some garages;
  • The Traffic & Parking Commission proposed to eliminate free parking in one garage;
  • Parking meter rates were doubled;
  • Calls to modernize and automate city parking have been ignored.

Recently they even attempted to levy a 10% tax on everyone parking in any Beverly Hills parking garage!

Read Measure 3P closely. It does not guarantee any free parking for non-Beverly Hills residents who shop and dine in Beverly Hills. They can change it on a whim. Look at their record over the past 5 years - do you trust City Hall when it comes to parking?

Vote NO on Measure 3P.

/s/ Simon Gamer, 42 year Beverly Hills Business Owner, 25 year Beverly Hills Resident
/s/ Janet Refoa, 26 year Beverly Hills Resident & Business Owner
/s/ Mehdi Nayssan, 20 year Beverly Hills Business Owner, 30 year Beverly Hills Resident
/s/ Susanna Forest, 35 year Beverly Hills Business Owner, 40 year Beverly Hills Resident
/s/ Paul Amiraslan, 16 year Beverly Hills Resident and Business Owner

Rebuttal to Arguments Against
Vote YES on 3P for mandatory, 3-hour free parking for Beverly Hills residents, which can only be changed by a vote of the people.

Don't be fooled! The official Impartial Analysis of Measure 3P in your Beverly Hills Municipal Election Voter Handbook confirms: "...3P amends the City's Municipal Code to require that Beverly Hills residents receive three hours of free parking per day at City-owned parking facilities....Measure 3P provides that residents would receive a 50% discount on evening flat rate parking...and would not otherwise alter the free parking and posted parking rates currently offered to all motorists at City-owned facilities."

Fact: Measure 3P is the only parking measure on your ballot that legally guarantees free, Three Hour day parking and discounted evening parking for Beverly Hills residents. Measure 3P also ensures a consistent free parking policy that only Beverly Hills' voters can change - not City Hall.

Fact: Measure 3P in no way alters Beverly Hills' policy of providing free two hour parking to all motorists, including the visitors we value who support our restaurants, retail shops, and other businesses.

Fact: Measure 3P's big developer opponents are trying to create a smokescreen -- they don't want you to know that their ill-conceived parking proposal is projected to cost the city and its taxpayers $1.3 Million per year - money needed to maintain Beverly Hills' senior, police, fire, paramedic and library services and support for neighborhood schools!

Vote yes on 3P - the fiscally responsible free parking plan for residents and visitors.

/s/ Julian A. Gold M.D., Recreation and Parks Commissioner
/s/ Larry Larson, Resident 31 years
/s/ Virginia A. Maas, resident - 35 years, Former BH School Board President
/s/ Craig Corman, Resident 30+ years


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Created: September 13, 2011 11:10 PDT
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