A growing preponderance of recreational vehicles being parked at Robb Field, leading to a scarcity of parking spaces for the increasing number of visitors as the weather begins to warm and softball season gets underway, was a subject of discontent at the Ocean Beach Community Foundation’s February meeting.
San Diego Police Department Community Relations Officer James Harris said he had received dozens of emails about the situation and said he visited the parking lot three weeks before the Feb. 26 meeting. He counted 105 RVs, he said, most of which he suspected were being used as housing for their occupants.
“But they’re taking up two spots and now we’ve got 210 spots gone and that’s a real problem,” Harris said. “Plus, you don’t feel safe potentially parking next to that. I get all these complaints and I feel those complaints.”
Similar concerns were voiced in 2023 by park s Albion Soccer Club and Peninsula Youth Softball.
Police are prohibited from enforcing the city’s vehicle habitation and oversize vehicle ordinances because of continuing legal challenges, Harris said, so the only action police can take is writing citations for RVs and other vehicles parked in the lot when the park is closed between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily.
Police did just that at Robb Field the weekend of Feb. 8-9 and wrote 86 citations, Harris said. He added that he counted only 47 RVs there the following week.
“So people got the hint,” he said. “They moved along. There wasn’t a whole lot of enforcement over the [following] weekend, so we had a little uptick. We’ve been up to 55 this week.”
Dedicated enforcement at Robb Field to combat the issue is constrained by personnel shortages, Harris said. He added that police can field only four or five officers overnight at current staffing levels.
“We’re thin,” he said. “And we don’t go to Robb Field alone. We go in two, preferably three, vehicles, which is essentially our entire staff for the night. So we don’t get to enforce a whole lot. That’s why we’re just pinpointing. Let’s try that every other weekend for right now and we’ll see where that goes.”
Denny Knox, executive director of the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association, described an incident before a game at Robb Field on Feb. 16.
“All the parents came and saw all the campers,” Knox said. “They were afraid to drop their children off and then go back for parking. So they sort of parked illegally on unmarked spots. All of them got tickets. One place they could go was the overflow lot, but that was closed because of the RVs that are there. So it seems really unfair.”
Knox said she had sent Harris an email about the incident, and though he said he hadn’t seen it, he added “I’m happy to put a note out on behalf of you guys to [take] issue with your citations. I would like a grievance request or whatever just to [say] ‘Can we have this thing excused?’”
“[They] had no alternative to leave their kids,” Harris said. “As a parent, I’d be doing the same thing.”
‘Daylighting’
In another matter, on March 1 police began ticketing vehicles parked curbside within 20 feet of intersections, following a 60-day period during which only warnings were issued.
The enforcement is keeping with a state law called AB 413, also known as the “daylighting” law, which was ed in 2023 and took effect Jan. 1.
Harris said the 20-foot no-parking space enables drivers to see pedestrians, skateboarders and others entering the intersection without their vision being impeded by parked cars and thus provides more time to slow down or stop.
To estimate the distance, Harris said 20 feet equals approximately one and a half lengths of an average car.
Tickets are issued whether or not an intersection has a marked crosswalk, red curb paint or no-parking signs, though intersections at alleys are not included, Harris said.
Infractions carry a fine of $65 plus a $12.50 istrative fee, for a total of $77.50.
But OBCF Vice President Gary Gartner argued that motorists will be paying a price whether they obey the law or not.
“The reality is, in many cities, there’s not enough parking,” Gartner said. “So that’s the other tradeoff that’s unrealistic.”
Harris, however, said the intent of the law is “really good.”
“People are hit in intersections,” Harris said. “So … I think it will, in fact, save lives. The implementation, that enforcement, is a little frustrating and it’ll take some time.”
Gartner asked whether the city discussed marking all the prohibited parking areas with paint.
City officials say crews have painted red curbs and/or posted signs at about 200 locations and removed 97 parking meters within 20 feet of intersections since the fall but haven’t completed the job citywide. All future city roadwork will include painting curbs to comply with the law, officials say.
“It’s not really feasible to visibly paint all 16,000 intersections — all four corners — throughout the city of San Diego,” Harris said. “That’s not a realistic goal in the near future.
“[The law] will be enforced whether it’s painted or not.”
Meetings
Gartner announced a new format for OBCF’s quarterly public meetings. The group — formerly known as the Ocean Beach Town Council — had traditionally convened on the fourth Wednesday of every month, but it decided last year to hold public meetings every three months.
The meetings now will be held at 7 p.m. the third Thursday of the month to prevent conflict with the Ocean Beach Farmers Market, which is open from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays.
In addition, the meetings will be moved from the Point Loma/Hervey Library, where they have been conducted for the past year, to the Ocean Beach Elementary School auditorium at 4741 Santa Monica Ave.
The changes will take effect with the next public meeting on Thursday, April 17. There is only a two-month gap between meetings this time because the group postponed its January meeting for a month, citing scheduling conflicts at the Point Loma Library.
Whether the meeting changes remain will depend on the community’s response, Gartner said.
“[We want to] see if people like that location and being able to walk and have it right in the center of town rather than [at the Point Loma Library],” he said. “If we get positive , we’ll probably continue to do that.”
— San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer David Garrick contributed to this report.
