Off-campus parking threatened

Photos and article published in CSUF's
Daily Titan newspaper on Feb. 24.

Opportunities for off-campus parking recently diminished by a full block in a neighborhood near Cal State Fullerton.

Residents living on the 2500 block of Balfour Avenue, between Commonwealth Avenue and San Carlos Drive, rallied together and petitioned the city of Fullerton to install one-hour parking signs, Traffic Engineering Department analyst David Langstaff said.

“(Traffic Engineering Department and law enforcement) staff receives numerous complaints each year from residents who express irritation over the number of CSUF and Hope University students using their street for off-campus parking,” Langstaff wrote in an e-mail. “The complaints have gone from blocked driveways and mailboxes over the years to property damage, speeding and disturbing the tranquility of a neighborhood due to excessive noise.”

The signs, which Langstaff estimated to be roughly under $100 each, were installed on Feb. 2, but the property owners called for action back in September 2008, Langstaff said. The signs state that one-hour parking is allowed Mondays through Fridays between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., but the rule is exempt on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.


“In my (25-year) experience, many property owners understand or accept the fact that students will park in front of their homes when they reside in close proximity to a school,” Langstaff wrote in the e-mail. “It is only when there are incidences of non-compliance with parking regulations that (Fullerton) is asked to establish parking regulations and ultimately provide enforcement.”

Balfour Avenue homeowner Stephenee Dyreson said at first she didn’t have a problem with students parking on her street considering the proximity to the school and the price of a CSUF parking permit, but then the inconsiderate nature of some students helped change her mind.

“There was a lot of trash,” Dyreson said. “They just left their trash on our street and that’s inconsiderate.”

Although Dyreson said she wasn’t as easily offended as other property owners, she still signed the petition because the trash, the partial blocking of her driveway and the late-night parking on a dark street were reason enough to conform.

Dyreson also said residents were not issued any special parking permits.

CSUF Radio-TV-Film major Shaun Allmon, 24, commutes from Los Angeles and said he understands that the trash in the gutter could be a problem, but that’s not enough reason to restrict students from parking.

“I guess it solves (the problem with) trash in the street,” Allmon said. “Students (will) still walk down the street to get to their cars, which is like another block or two. I don’t really think it helps too much.”

Allmon said the situation will fail to force students to buy parking permits and that the signs are a waste of money.


“I park out here because I commute and only have class once a week,” Allmon said. “I don’t think it’s worth ($162) for a parking permit and I don’t mind walking five minutes, 10 minutes now.”

Residents living around the intersection of Clark Avenue and Chapman Avenue are dealing with a significant amount of student parking due to an absence of one-hour parking signs. If asked to sign a petition to enforce parking restrictions, Greg Quinn and Alice Bautista-Quinn, Clark Avenue homeowners for 37 years, would refuse.

“The kids need to go to school,” Alice said. “But there are times they are (parked) here all day and sometimes it just looks ugly.”

The Quinns said one factor that would keep them from voting for change is that the parking restriction also prevents property owners from parking along the street for more than an hour.

“(The parking) doesn’t really bother me,” Greg said. “The kids have to park somewhere.”