Newport seeks to relieve parking problem

June Casagrande

This time, things will be different.

“No parking” signs went up a few months ago in a lot next to the

Arches Restaurant because the Caltrans-owned lot was being abused:

Buses, an RV and other vehicles sat there for weeks, even months. And

no one seemed to know whose they were.

But City Councilman Don Webb believes that, in the right hands,

the parcel could provide parking relief to the busy area without

turning into a blighted graveyard for semi-abandoned cars.

Webb has asked city staff to strike up talks with Caltrans about

ways the city might step in and transform the desolate piece of

concrete into 30 to 40 parking spots managed by the city, perhaps in

cooperation with state highway authorities.

“My thought was to have the city take control and provide parking

there,” Webb said of the space west of the restaurant ending at the

retaining wall of the Arches bridge. “We could put controls over it

where we could limit the type of parking, so people wouldn’t be just

using it randomly and storing vehicles there long-term.”

Public Works Director Steve Badum said that the arrangement could

also help the city control what happens on the property. For example,

in other areas of the state, the agency leases space to business such

as car dealers for storage.

“Obviously, we have a concern over what goes in there,” Badum

said.

Of course, nothing can take place there without Caltrans’

blessing. Badum said he could initiate contact with the agency

sometime in the next week to look for mutually beneficial

arrangements. One possibility might be for the city to manage the

site as employee parking for businesses in the area and share some of

the revenues with Caltrans.

Badum said that the site is better suited to serve as a valet lot

or employee parking than general public parking because the site

doesn’t have good pedestrian access to many of the businesses there.

Arches owner Dan Marcheano, who rented the space from Caltrans for

parking for his business until about 1998, said added parking could

help the whole area.

“More parking would be a big help down there,” Marcheano said.

“And anyone could do a better job of running it than Caltrans.”