Dublin City Council to Consider Solutions for Ending Parking Nightmare at Dublin Ranch Villages
Consulting City Planner and Southern California resident Mike Porto will be outlining potential solutions on Tuesday night and asking Dublin City Council if it wishes to address the parking nightmare at Dublin Ranch Villages. The high-density residential community in Dublin, CA includes 1,396 homes that comprise the Villas, the Cottages, the Courtyards, and the Terraces. Porto was the City Planner primarily responsible for the building designs and the parking layout at the Dublin Ranch Villages. According to a local developer, Porto is apparently an avid car collector whose mansion in the Irvine area has a garage big enough for an automotive fleet.
The City of Dublin insists all four projects meet Dublin’s putative parking standards; however, many residents in the neighborhood would disagree. Cars owned by Dublin Ranch Villages residents and their guests park on the undeveloped dirt lot that was supposed to be the Promenade and spill over into the neighboring Sorrento West community everyday.
The reasons for the parking shortage at the Dublin Ranch Villages are manifold, but all point to the faulty assumptions in the original planning of the projects. Tandem parking garages are the most obvious culprit for the parking challenge, as many residents find the space impractical to use for more than one car at a time.
The original parking plans also did not take into consideration residents with work vehicles or who use their garages for storage space as many home owners do in communities of single family residential homes. In addition, the City of Dublin only required one dedicated parking space and 0.5 visitor space for every one-bedroom condos at the Dublin Ranch Villages. This unrealistic accounting excludes couples living in the space with multiple cars or gatherings with more than a few guests.
Consulting City Planner Porto’s list of potential solutions places the burden of addressing the parking crisis on the individual Homeowners Associations (HOA) and Dublin Police Services. Some of Porto’s ideas include requiring the HOAs to pay for additional guest parking in their communities, creating a permit process for visitors parking overnight in guest areas, and banning work vehicles from parking in the Dublin Ranch Villages. Other solutions could include having Dublin Police Services become meter maids and tow vehicles parked in the area for more than 72 hours. The City could also prohibit residents from parking on the public streets of the Dublin Ranch Villages altogether. The Consulting City Planner who regularly commutes from Southern California did not explain specifically how Dublin Police Services would go about enforcing any of these new rules.
Noticeably absent from the proposed solutions is an option for the City to make amends to the residents at the Dublin Ranch Villages by purchasing and converting nearby land to create additional parking spaces. Instead, the City of Dublin is looking to put more high-density homes in the heart of the Dublin Ranch Villages where the Promenade was supposed to be.
The overall theme of the proposed solutions is that the HOAs and Dublin Police Services need to crack the whip on the residents at the Dublin Ranch Villages. The City of Dublin has not taken any responsibility for the planning fiasco at the Dublin Ranch Villages and is placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of residents already chafed by the daily ritual of “circling the block” for years while waiting for the Promenade that never came. Instead, the City is looking to exacerbate the problem by cramming more high-density homes into an area of the Promenade where none had been planned.
Dublin’s City Council meets this Tuesday at 7PM at 100 Civic Plaza.
6:42 AM on February 7th, 2012
The truth hurts … while the condition of the parking setup by the City certainly doesn’t help, it begins with the homeowners. We’ve all seen it a thousand times … people who cannot use their garage for it’s intended purpose. They want to use it as a wood shop, yoga studio, mechanics pit, rumpus room, or anything else other than a garage.
Why should the city spend money on a problem exacerbated by selfish home owners? Once the garages are cleared out, then additional parking solutions can be determined.
6:52 AM on February 7th, 2012
We have a lot of home owners, right here in the Terraces, that think their garages are storage rooms… and then they use the designated guest parking areas for their 2 vehicles. We also have many residents with tandem parking that again, refuse to use them and use the guest parking/street parking for their cars.
6:54 AM on February 7th, 2012
Mike Porto is a terrific planner who is deeply respected by the Planning Commission. Again, this blog continues to attack individuals and their lives to build story drama. Managing and developing our City is not a sport, not sleight of hand and certainly not cheap realty show entertainment.
I would suggest that the issues of parking continue to be dealt with in public forums and let those who take public stances (regardless of their position) be left with their private lives intact. Just as every reader on this blog has the right to their private lives including whatever home they choose to buy and whatever passion they choose to pursue; such as collecting antique cars.
7:46 PM on February 7th, 2012
Hi Bill – I’m a big fan of Mike Porto and Dublin has been fortunate to have him as the consulting planner all these years. We may not have an East Dublin if not for him…at least not the East Dublin so many have grown to love. However, I think it’s reasonable to call a spade a spade in this case. The parking in the Villages is a nightmare that can be traced back to the planning.
Thx, John Z.
12:12 AM on February 8th, 2012
I don’t see any attack on his love of collecting cars. Talk about being overly sensitive, or having serious issues.
9:17 AM on February 7th, 2012
It is troubling that the author of this article states that an alternative solution is for the City to purchase the adjacent parcel and convert to parking. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Each purchaser fully understood the parking arrangement for each home and has made individual choices whether to utilize their parking spaces. Much of the parking problems are self inflicted and the solution to the problem is not the City to provide parking but to create disincentives for those that use their parking for other uses other than storage of vehicles. The City should consider metering the public streets and enforce violators aggressively. Which, may will condition those individuals actions to change their behavior from adversely impacting the balance of the community.
4:42 PM on February 7th, 2012
Eric;
That is just not the solution. You will be creating more problems to what it is now. You put the parking meters and those cars will run to the SFR residential areas in Sorrento and Dublin Ranch. Then you will have those residents complaining to the council. Villages car ratio from the start is not right. Multi unit residential parking should be 4:1 per unit or more including garage parking. Villages from the start had less than 2:1 if my memory serve me right. I saw that problem from the start. The city let Toll get their way in putting more density in such a small area pure and simple. I hope this serves as a lesson for future development of multi unit housing. By the way 66% buildout for the last 10 years of new homes is just ridiculous.
10:28 AM on February 7th, 2012
I don’t think appeals to personal responsibility will help to solve the issue, unless HOA will step up and try to enforce rules. Don’t want to be a dick, but I’m personally fed up with all that junk parked in front of our hose at Sorrento. Our neighbors across the Central don’t let to park their teen’s clunkers in garages , so they have to park them on our side of the road.
10:31 AM on February 7th, 2012
I usually agree with a lot of what is said by the authors of this site but this is one that I don’t agree with– I agree with the first post- too many residents use their garages as a Public Storage unit, family member living quarters or some other non-intended us. I understand that the garages are tight for two cars but I think most do not park any car in their garage, which means they have at least two cars on the street– It’s even worse when there are 2 adult couples living in the same unit (many times that garage turns into a rental property room)…
7:08 PM on February 7th, 2012
Hi Anonymous,
To date we are not aware of any real study done by the City of Dublin to back up the claim that the parking problem is caused solely by the residents and not in part to the fact that the City under-allocated surface parking spaces at the Dublin Ranch Villages. If the City wants to put the blame squarely on the residents, it should at least do so with some real numbers.
10:56 PM on February 7th, 2012
Around Dublin Team,
I agree with you. City officials continue to point fingers at homeowners in the Villages and continue to blame the HOAs for causing the parking problems by not enforcing HOA rules. I’ve seen no study from the city to indicate that residents of the Villages park a smaller percentage of their cars in garages than residents of other Dublin neighborhoods. In fact, I would bet that they park a HIGHER percentage of their cars in garages than other Dublin neighborhoods. Dublin officials should stop making baseless claims that they cannot back up. I believe the problem was caused by poor planning by the City of Dublin which resulted in too few parking spaces per resident in the Villages, mainly because Dublin officials are always eager to acquiesce to the wishes of the developers that get them elected and re-elected. I believe that Dublin officials are fully aware that they screwed up and they are blaming residents of the Villages to cover their behinds and protect their fragile egos.
Why should residents of the Villages be the only Dublin residents that are held to a stricter parking standard?
Eric Chaves (not a resident of the Villages)
5:52 PM on February 7th, 2012
I find the article slanderous towards Mike Porto as there is incorrect and misleading information about Mr. Porto. Who wrote this article? You should really get your facts straight before you send these kinds of articles to print.
12:09 AM on February 8th, 2012
What is slanderous, that he has a large garage? Grow some thicker skin…
11:28 PM on February 7th, 2012
I’m not sure why folks are getting offended by this article and trying to pay unwanted respect o Mr. Porto. Can you please provide the correct info if this article has incorrect or misleading information here
1:11 AM on February 9th, 2012
At the Terraces the one bedroom home comes with only 1 assigned parking spot. Many of the one bedrooms have 2 people living in them. Even though these people pay a mortgage they are forced to park in guest parking or on the street.
6:51 AM on February 9th, 2012
1:11 – That is what I am saying. One bedroom for 1 assigned car space. Is there still a question why there is a parking problem. Chances are a one bedroom unit will have a couple occupants. Planners and council members expect them to have one car. I know the ratio was less than 2 per unit parking space. Watch West Dublin Bart developement. That has the same ratio. Cars parked in the streets does not bode well with the general city appearance. It lessens home values in general. Serrano development in El Dorado Hills prohibit overnight parking in the streets for SFR homes. The city has to correct past mistakes in the Villages by creating parking space for the residents.
9:50 PM on February 9th, 2012
Anyone planning on going to the cellar 9 event hosted by KB on 2/18?