Three months before the new Von’s Supermarket is set to open, Avalon residents are grappling with parking problems associated with the massive new structure.
Public works director Bob Greenlaw appeared before the council on Tuesday with preliminary ideas, seeking additional input from the council and the public.
The parking plan is “not set in stone,” Greenlaw told the council, adding he was just throwing out some ideas to “throw some darts at.”
Greenlaw is working with transportation consultants to devise a plan for onsite parking as well as side street parking that will satisfy the new supermarket’s parking needs. “We’re trying to put something elegant and simple together,” he said.
Greenlaw presented diagrams of a proposed parking area near the store which includes 26 spaces, including three full size, two of which are acceptable to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) specifications. There are two other ADA spaces in the proposed lot, he said, and the onsite lot has an additional 22 spaces, mostly for golf carts.
He presented artwork of how the intersection of Beacon and Sumner Streets may look after the store opens in January, saying the increased traffic needs a median and other restrictions to “calm” traffic.
There will be a 22-foot entrance and exit access gateway, which at 11-feet each lane, would be equivalent to mainland entrances, he said.
Greenlaw also presented a number of potential scenarios where curbs would be painted green to allow for one-hour parking along them.
He also discussed truck routes to the new store, which will require re-stocking, saying the trucks can travel down Catalina and then “back into” the loading area.
Mayor Anni Marshall wanted reassurances that public service vehicles such as fire engines would have no problems with the new configurations.
Council member Pam Albers said the environmental impact “was not the residents’ fault” and that she would not favor a plan “simple and elegant but screws the residents” who live nearby.
She suggested to Greenlaw that one side of the affected streets be used for one-hour Von’s parking while the other side is reserved for residents who live there.
Under any plan, Greenlaw said residents who live near the site would be issued permits at no charge for parking along the street for extended hours.
Council Member Cinde MacGugan-Cassidy said many of those streets are already being used for parking by construction workers and other downtown workers, and she worried that the new Von’s would force a large group of vehicles to find another place to park, perhaps near the existing Von’s which will be shut down.
Oley Olsen and Richard Hernandez, also council members, openly worried about parking for nearby residents and homeowners saying they deserved special consideration.
Marshall wondered why not make the temporary parking limit two-hours so that vehicle owners could take care of all of their business around town without moving their vehicles.
Greenlaw said he would take all of the feedback to the experts and come up with a trial plan present at the next meeting, again suggesting that whatever plan is developed, it will assuredly change as officials get data and input from residents as the store opens and drivers find a way to make it work.
In other action Tuesday, the Avalon council:
• learned from Greenlaw and harbor officials that South Beach had suffered serious damage from the storm surge over the weekend. Greenlaw will approach the Coastal Commission to request authority to perform emergency action. He said the city needs three tons of rock, at least, to slow the velocity of waves hitting the beach at that point.
• learned that there will be 52 booths at the fall festival, including 21 food booths.
• heard Fire Chief Mike Krug report there were electrical strikes to Catalina Friday but no resulting fires. The Catalina school fair was shut down early in an abundance of caution, he said.
