Throughout Orange County, residents living in condos and apartments often grapple with finding a place to park – an issue that impacts thousands of people throughout North and Central OC.
It’s an issue that’s plagued many residents for years.
[Read: Parking Problems Across OC Neighborhoods in 2017]
Now, parking problems continue in the Heart of Orange County in Santa Ana.
Residents there say finding parking while getting home from work can be a Herculean task, with many having to leave their cars blocks away and hoof it all the way back to their place.
[Read: Tired of Walking Blocks to Get Home, Santa Ana Residents Take Action to Find More Parking]
And it’s unclear if residents are going to get significant relief anytime soon from that long time predicament as they continue to be left with a decades old permitting street parking system that some residents say is inequitable.
It’s an issue that city officials have long struggled to solve as they continue to wait for the results of a citywide residential parking permit study staff says was formally started in 2023 with the goal of overhauling their over 30-year permit parking program.
Years later, residents are still waiting to receive the results of that study, which city staff started in 2021, hoping elected officials will use it to improve their parking permit program.
A neighborhood in central Santa Ana that struggles with parking on July 11, 2026. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
Angela Capoccia, a resident, criticized the permit program for excluding a majority of condo owners and said city leaders are dragging their feet to make adjustments, telling residents to be patient for a parking study that never seems to finish.
“When I purchased my condo, I was able to park near my home. Today, because permit eligibility is only for single family homeowners and people who live in condos with less than four units. I cannot legally park anywhere near my home,” she said at the July 7 meeting
“Whether intended or not, single-family homeowners’ interests are being prioritized, while condo owners are asked to wait indefinitely. I have to choose between receiving a citation, walking nearly a mile after dark or putting my car at a business and risk being towed.”
City Manager Alvaro Nuñez told elected officials last week they can expect an update on the long awaited parking study after questions from elected leaders and residents on its status.
“We’re aware that this is a study that has been requested for many many years so we just put it as part of our checkup list,” Nuñez said.
His remarks came amid a discussion requested by Councilman David Penaloza calling on Nuñez to switch the parking permit stickers with hanging placards for residents – an idea he had previously brought up in 2022.
Penaloza was told to hold off on his request because city officials were pursuing the parking study – one Penaloza publicly said has taken more than six years to finish.
“We still have not seen the results of this parking study or an update,” Penaloza, who is running for state assembly, said at the July 7 meeting.
“I think it’s important that we just get an appropriate timeline from Public Works on when we could get this parking permit study, whatever it is. If it’s not happening anymore, then just tell us.”
In a Wednesday email, City Spokesman Paul Eakins said the study results will be presented to the city council on Oct. 6.
Santa Ana’s Parking Permit Program & Marbury Park
The permit parking program, established in the early 90s, allows city officials to establish districts on different blocks where permits are required to park vehicles on the streets in an effort to ensure parking spots for neighborhood residents.
Residents living on a non-permit parking block can petition elected officials to establish a new permit district in their neighborhood by getting support of 51% of residents in the area.
At the same meeting, city council members voted unanimously without discussion to expand the Marbury Park Permit Parking District’s boundaries east to Tustin Ave between 4th and 17th street.
It came after 70% of residents living in an area adjacent to the Marbury Park parking district showed support to join the permit program.
Capoccia criticized the expansion of the district.
“This is not the action of a city council that is looking to overhaul an inequitable system,” she said.
“The message that sends to the city is that when it comes to expanding restrictions, everything is easy, but when you try to have a more equitable distribution of parking, it’s going to take years, whether intended or not.”
How Long Does it Take to Complete a Parking Study?
Eakins said the study formally started in March 2023 to get input from residents on how to improve the program.
Later that year, public works staff started using a phone app that uses automated license plate readers to start collecting street parking spaces data to help them revamp the program, according to the city website
But discussions on surveying residents and overhauling the permit program have been brought up and requested multiple times in the years prior to that – stretching back to at least 2018.
In September 2021, city staff told elected leaders they are looking to do a comprehensive evaluation of the program, including getting input from residents, studying programs in other cities and seeking out consultants.
By February 2022, former Public Works Director Nabil Saba told council members at the time they were going to start the bidding process to retain consultants to study their parking permit program and make recommendations to address the city’s parking challenges.
Saba also said they would be surveying and getting feedback from residents on the program before seeking a consultant and estimated the study would be completed by June 2023.
“This way we could take all of the feedback to our consultant to study, tabulate, and bring back hopefully good revisions and improvements on the program,” he said at council meeting in February 2022.
The bidding process for the consultant study opened April 2022 and closed in June of that year, according to the city website.
In August 2023, city council members received an update on the consultants permit parking study and the residents survey with Saba saying they could expect recommendations for the permit program in Fall 2024.
The consultant study came after Councilman Phil Bacerra in May 2021 called on his colleagues to discuss implementing neighborhood wide parking districts rather than piecemeal the districts by carving out certain blocks for parking permits.
During the 2021 discussion requested by Bacerra, then Mayor and current OC Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento questioned if officials already commissioned a parking study a couple years back.
Staff told Sarmiento a pilot study was done but officials opted not to do a citywide study due to the substantial cost and that the rationale was that officials already knew they had a “parking problem.”
The parking study is not the only thing residents have been waiting for city leaders to complete in Santa Ana.
They are also waiting for the completion of the construction on Bristol Street – a roadway which has been under repair for decades.
[Read: Under Construction: Santa Ana’s Long Winding Saga With Torn Up Streets]
Modernizing the Parking Permit System
Nuñez said there will be an update on the study in the coming months as officials look to digitalize the permit system.
In May, city staff requested proposals from computer software consultants to develop a residential permit parking management system. The bidding process closed last month, according to the city website.
“Part of this RFP process is to use technology and be able to be more effective, more efficient,” Nuñez said.
Councilwoman Jessie Lopez, who is also running for state assembly, said it was time to discuss modernizing the parking permit process.
“Whatever format we land on, stickered or otherwise, I want to make sure that it’s part of the broader conversation that this council should have and should have soon that was because of the concerns of some homeowners being treated differently than others, which is something we’ve known about for many years now,” she said.
“My priority is going to be a system, obviously, that’s digital, easy to use, and that works for everyone.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
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