Bigger parking spaces may be in the works

Elise Gee

COSTA MESA -- Trying to fit a truck or sport utility vehicle into the

average Costa Mesa parking space is a little like trying get a

40-year-old squeezed into a pair of pre-marriage size jeans: it’s usually

a tight fit.

The Planning Commission will look at loosening the belt Monday on parking

space sizes to accommodate the increasingly common trucks and SUVs.

The action was prompted by Councilwoman Linda Dixon, who thought the

standards needed an overhaul.

“I noticed over a period of time ... that there were more Suburbans and

SUVs hanging over parking spaces or pulled in over the white lanes,” said

Dixon, who drives a small BMW. “The Suburban was huge, and now we have

the Expedition and the Super Expedition. I started noticing there were

more regular and SUV cars in compact spaces.”

Dixon’s observations are in line with current trends. The city’s current

parking standards were adopted 15 years ago, when compact cars were more

the norm for the city.

But according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, sales of SUVs

alone grew tenfold since 1980, with more than 2.8 million hitting the

roads in 1998. From 1992 to 1997, the number of light trucks grew from 54

million to 68 million and the Automobile Club of Southern California

estimates that one in three vehicles on the road today is some sort of

light truck, and that includes SUVs, pickups minivans and Jeep-like

vehicles.

In December, sales of trucks, vans and SUVs surpassed sales of cars for

the first time in history, auto makers have reported.

The proposed change should help both large vehicle owners who can’t seem

to find the right size parking space and compact car owners who are being

squeezed out by the behemoth vehicles, Dixon said.

Most other cities have approved larger parking spaces than Costa Mesa,

according to city staff reports. Recommendations from staff will include

adopting a common stall width of nine feet, instead of the current

standard of eight feet, six inches.

Stall depths would also be increased from 18 feet to 19 feet, and compact

space dimensions would be increased from seven feet, six inches by 15

feet to eight feet by 17 feet.

The Planning Commission meets at 6:30 p.m. today in Council Chambers at

City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.