Bylaws for Two Parking Commissions Head to Council Committee Tuesday

The Municipal Services Committee is scheduled today to consider whether the City Council should approve updated rules and regulations for two commissions that manage or advise on parking, one in the South Lake Parking District and the other in the Pasadena Playhouse Parking Meter Zone.

For the South Lake Parking Place Commission, the update closes a gap that went unnoticed for years. The commission approved and adopted its rules in October 1982 and amended them in 1988, according to the agenda report from the Department of Transportation. When the City Council authorized the South Lake Parking Meter Zone District in June 2007, the agenda report for that action stated the bylaws would need to be updated to account for the commission’s new responsibilities for the meter zone. A recent staff audit discovered the bylaws had never been updated. Department of Transportation staff have since met with the commission, and the attached rules have been approved by the commission and reviewed by the City Attorney. The rules have been updated to a more current format and to include the parking meter responsibilities. They were unanimously approved at the commission’s regular meeting on July 24, 2025.

The revised South Lake document states the commission’s purpose is to manage, operate and control the South Lake Parking District and the parking spaces within it, to adopt and enforce all necessary rules for their use, and to ensure the district is operated for the benefit of all its members. It provides that the commission manages the district independently of the City Council except for annual budget approval by the Council, appeals to the Council concerning a commission decision, and such other direction as the Council may provide. Membership is limited to five, three of whom constitute a quorum. New business, old business and information items are presented twice at each meeting — once for the Shopper’s Lane surface lot fund and once for the on-street meter fund.

The Pasadena Playhouse Parking Meter Zone Advisory Commission is starting almost from scratch. Established in 2025, its leadership — the chair, vice chair and three commissioners — began meeting periodically with Department of Transportation staff to identify and advance the commission’s objectives, including its mission to launch a paid parking program in the Playhouse Village area. Staff and commissioners developed the rules together pursuant to municipal code Chapter 2.98, and the commission has settled into a quarterly schedule, meeting on the second Thursday of every third month. The rules were unanimously adopted at a special meeting on Nov. 10, 2025.

Those rules define the Playhouse commission’s purposes as recommending to the City Council the priority expenditures of net parking meter revenues within the zone for street and parking-related spending that regulates and controls traffic and parking in the zone and its surrounding area, and studying other parking-related issues referred to it by the Council or the Director of Transportation, which may include proposed changes to parking meter rates. Membership is capped at seven. A quorum is a majority of the seats filled by the City Council, and no action is valid without the affirmative vote of at least three members. Discussion on any agenda item is limited to 30 minutes, extendable once by the same amount. Public comment is capped at 20 minutes total, with individual speakers subject to a three-minute limit. Amendments require the affirmative vote of four members and must be submitted to the City Council for final approval.

Staff describe the proposed action as aligned with one of the city’s top five priorities, implementing the Economic Development Strategic Plan with a placemaking focus, and as consistent with a City Council strategic planning goal of maintaining fiscal responsibility and stability. Approving the rules for either commission would not entail a fiscal impact, the report states. Staff also recommend the Council find the action is not a project subject to the California Environmental Quality Act under Public Resources Code Section 21065 and Guidelines Section 15378, because it is an administrative activity that would not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment.

The report was submitted by Joaquin T. Siques, director of transportation, prepared by Jon Hamblen, parking manager, and approved by Matthew E. Hawkesworth, interim city manager.

The Municipal Services Committee is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 25, in the Council Chamber, Room S249, at City Hall, 100 North Garfield Avenue, in Pasadena. For more information call (626) 744-4124 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas/.