College Estates residents are getting their streets back after the Chula Vista City Council on Tuesday night adopted the city’s first residential parking permit district across the street from Southwestern College.
Many College Estates residents — a small community of about 250 homes east of Otay Lakes Road across from SWC — has asked the council for years to find a solution to alleviate congestion caused by college students parking in their neighborhood.
Resident Bob Muff has lived at his home on Xavier Avenue for 30 years and has had to fight for parking with SWC students through the decades.
“It’s difficult to pull out of your driveway when you have cars pulled into the entrance of your driveway,” he said.
Muff said that students flood the neighborhood streets, create loud noise from blaring car radios and car alarms going off at all hours of the day. He added that students park illegally on corners, driveways and move trash cans to fit their cars.
He said SWC students park in the neighborhood because they want to avoid paying for a $40 semester parking permit.
Under the Residential Parking Permit District, residents are entitled to three resident permits and one guest permit for $20 each. Temporary permits are available for a two-week period. Cars parked in garages or driveways are not required to have a permit.
Bill Valle, city engineer, said signage for the parking district would go up in the next 60 days. He expects the full process to be implemented in 90 days.
Valle said it would cost the city about $17,000 to create and install the signage.
Gilbert Valdez, a resident of College Estates for 19 years, opposed paying the $20 for a parking permit because he said he doesn’t have the same issue as the rest of his neighbors; he lives further down from the high traffic area.
“We have never had issues with students parking in our area,” he told the council.
Valdez said it wasn’t fair for him to pay $20 to park in front of his home.
Southwestern College’s campus police will conduct enforcement for the parking district Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Enforcement hours were originally proposed from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. but council members modified those hours.
Muff said he would have liked to see longer enforcement hours.
“Night school continues to impact our area,” he said.
Councilman John McCann supported creating a district because he’s driven through the neighborhoods and seen firsthand the problems the students create.
“There are parking issues,” he said. “There is trash. There is some activity that may not be the best.”
The city hosted several community outreach meetings with residents, college officials and city staff in researching and coming up with a way to address the issue.
With the establishment of the parking district Chula Vista is following the city of San Diego’s lead, which also has districts in neighborhoods near San Diego State University and UC San Diego.
College Estates residents signed a petition saying they were interested in a parking district and presented the petition to the city’s Engineering Department. About 70 percent of College Estates residents signed the petition, Valle said.
