Manhattan Beach council directs staff to advance parking-management toolkit, orders prioritized follow-up

Manhattan Beach — The City Council on Nov. 3 received a multi-section parking-management report from Walker Consultants and directed staff to carry forward a set of operational, technology and study actions while returning early next year with prioritized next steps.

The presentation summarized multi-day counts taken in summer and fall 2024 and found concentrated summertime peaks downtown when beach, dining and nightlife demand overlap. "Peak parking demand occurred late on Saturday," Walker Consultants principal Stefan Trop told the council, noting large areas reached or exceeded capacity during those peak periods. City traffic engineer Eric (the city's traffic engineer) said the study looks at long‑run, manageable demand rather than the handful of extreme summer peak days; "it's our goal to improve the quality of life and preserve the city's small‑town character," he said.

Why the study and what council asked for

The 2025 toolkit updates a series of earlier studies and inventories roughly 1,500 public parking spaces citywide across on‑ and off‑street facilities. The consultants presented a conservative estimate of unmet future demand for downtown on the order of roughly 295 spaces and about 80 spaces for North Manhattan Beach under assumptions that include modest ambient growth, some parcel densification and a target operating occupancy of roughly 85–90 percent.

Council members repeatedly pressed the consultants on assumptions behind those numbers — asking how much of the projected demand was from densification, how much from local employment growth, and how the study accounted for modal shifts (transit, walking, rideshare). Jeff of Walker Consultants described the projection components as ambient growth, densification and current unmet demand, and emphasized the recommendation is a planning tool, not an automatic building program.

What the council approved to study or implement

After extended discussion and public comment, councilors supported pursuing the staff/commission recommendations to:

- Move forward with mobile payment platforms and replacement of single‑space meters with multispace kiosks (staff said work to procure those vendors is already under way). - Prepare an implementation plan to enable license‑plate reader enforcement and smart parking software (the city previously approved a parking technology roadmap in April 2025). - Direct staff to create a merchant‑permit stakeholder task force to review permit counts, transferability, eligibility and pricing, and return with options for caps, phased rate changes and enforcement improvements. - Study additional supply options, including reconstruction or replacement of aging lots/structures and public–private partnership opportunities; staff noted 400 Manhattan Beach Blvd. currently yields about 26 spaces and asked council whether metering that site for public use should be evaluated. - Explore microtransit pilots (on‑demand shuttles) and expand wayfinding, parking web/app information and bike parking; staff and the PPIC recommended pilots and further study for micromobility and remote‑parking shuttle concepts before program launch.

What drew the most debate

Rate structure and time limits prompted the sharpest disagreement. Consultants recommended pricing on‑street parking at a premium relative to off‑street facilities and considered seasonal or demand‑based adjustments. Several downtown business representatives, including Kelly Strowman of the Downtown Business & Professionals Association, strongly opposed real‑time or heavily variable day‑of pricing and urged predictable, simple rates for visitors. "We are not in favor of tiered or flex parking rates based on demand," Strowman said in public comment.

Merchant permits also drew sustained attention. Staff presented counts showing merchant permits concentrated in Metlocks and signs that some hang tags have been effectively transferred or heavily held. Council members from across the dais asked staff to examine limits on how many permits a single owner can hold, the differentiated needs of part‑time employees, and whether merchant permit pricing should be phased toward market levels with revenue used to support affordable employee parking options.

Public reaction and stakeholder concerns

Speakers from the DBPA, Chamber of Commerce and individual residents commended the report's scope while urging caution on fees and enforcement. Resident Jim Burton urged simple, market‑aligned pricing and told the council he favored a clean, big‑picture approach: "If we are going to make changes, just jump directly to market rates," he said, while acknowledging implementation details matter.

Next steps and schedule

Councilors generally agreed to include the approved strategies in a draft parking‑management plan and asked staff to return early next year (January–February) with a prioritized implementation schedule that spells out timeframes, estimated lift/cost and recommended pilot areas. Council direction emphasized pairing some technical implementations (mobile payments, kiosks, license‑plate enforcement) with stakeholder work on merchant permits and a focused review of high‑priority supply options such as Lot 4 and the 400 Manhattan Beach Blvd. parcel.

The meeting closed with staff noting the next deliverable will be a consolidated draft plan reflecting council priorities and implementation sequences; no final policy or new fees were adopted at the Nov. 3 meeting.

Ending

The council did not adopt new ordinances or set final rates at the Nov. 3 meeting; instead it directed staff to return with a prioritized action plan and implementation details that would include analyses of cost, enforcement changes, and community impacts.