AI-written summary of reporting by New York Post. No human editor reviewed this. AI can misread or omit facts — read the original, linked below.
ABSTRACT

The Laguna Hills City Council approved the creation of a permit parking area around portions of Beckenham Park at its Sept. 8 meeting, according to Voice of OC. Residents will pay $25 annually for a permit, and the city is expected to spend about $10,000 initially to install signs and mail notices to residents about the changes.

New York Post

Laguna Hills approves $25 permit parking near Beckenham Park

Laguna Hills approves $25 permit parking near Beckenham Park
Sep 18, 2026, 4:53 PM

The Laguna Hills City Council approved the creation of a permit parking area around portions of Beckenham Park at its Sept. 8 meeting, according to Voice of OC. Residents will pay $25 annually for a permit, and the city is expected to spend about $10,000 initially to install signs and mail notices to residents about the changes.

Context

City officials describe the problem as spillover parking from nearby apartment buildings and other high-density housing onto streets with limited curbside parking. The new restrictions will not apply to every street surrounding Beckenham Park.

Permit parking will cover the south side of Wilkes Place, Luton Street, Via Balboa and Calle Carmel, along with designated portions of Costeau Street, Camberwell Street, Avenida Avalon and Hendon Street.

Under Laguna Hills municipal code, about 67 percent of homeowners within a proposed permit parking area must sign a city petition supporting the restrictions. Assistant City Manager Joe Ames said some streets where support exceeded that threshold could be grouped with connecting streets where support was lower, allowing the designated area as a whole to meet the city's 67 percent requirement, according to Voice of OC.

At the same meeting, the council voted 3-1 to continue considering a separate proposal that would create roughly 46 unrestricted parking spaces along the north side of Laguna Hills Drive, according to Voice of OC.

All Perspectives
Laguna Hills city officials: The city is moving to restrict parking on several streets near Beckenham Park, which officials describe as an effort to ease overcrowding and to address spillover parking from nearby apartment buildings and other high-density housing.
Councilmember Dave Wheeler: Wheeler compared the city's attempts to address parking problems with permits to a game of Whac-A-Mole. "What always happens is, you do one neighborhood that's near the problem and then you're Whac-A-Mole," he said, according to Voice of OC. "How many more neighborhoods are vulnerable for the next round?" Wheeler said he sees the larger issue as a shortage of parking at high-density residential developments, which he said pushes vehicles onto surrounding streets. "The problem is we have these high density housing areas that don't build enough parking and so what they do is they bleed out into the surrounding neighborhoods, and it just keeps growing and growing," he said, according to Voice of OC. "The problem is these places should be responsible for their own parking." Wheeler also raised the broader question of whether Laguna Hills should eventually consider a citywide permit system to deal with parking pressures associated with high-density housing.
Assistant City Manager Joe Ames: Ames said some streets where support for permit parking exceeded the city's 67 percent petition threshold could be grouped with connecting streets where support was lower, allowing the designated area as a whole to meet the city's requirement, according to Voice of OC.
Position not represented in the source reporting: Residents and homeowners in the affected streets; Owners of nearby high-density residential developments.
Gaps & Unknowns
  • The source does not state the vote count on the permit parking area approval or how individual council members voted on it.
  • The source does not state when the permit requirement takes effect.
  • The source does not state how many households or permits the new parking area covers.
  • The source does not state how visitor parking, or parking by residents outside the designated streets, would be handled.
  • The source does not state which council member cast the dissenting vote on continuing consideration of the Laguna Hills Drive proposal, or when that proposal will be decided.
  • The source does not state the cost of implementing a citywide permit system that Wheeler asked the council to consider.
Sources & Further Reading
  1. New York Post — original

Read the original at New York Post

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