Studio City Group Backs Parking Zone

A Studio City residents association wants to create a preferential parking district in a residential area adjacent to a busy six-block stretch of Ventura Boulevard.

For residents, it would mean a welcome relief from the car-jammed side streets that run off the boulevard. But for business owners, to whom many of those cars mean customers, preferential parking might mean fewer patrons.

The district, which would prohibit non-residents from parking in the neighborhood during designated hours, and force residents to purchase permits to park in their own neighborhood, must first be approved by the city Department of Transportation.

The department has already determined the area has a parking problem sufficient to warrant a preferential district, but is awaiting confirmation from the Department of Motor Vehicles that cars parked in the area are registered to owners who live elsewhere.

Tony Lucente, president of the Studio City Residents Assn., called the district a necessary evil and said the community has been lacking adequate parking for years.

Art Ginsburg, owner of Art’s Delicatessen at 12224 Ventura Blvd., acknowledged that the district could hurt his business.

Studio City is about midway through the yearlong process of creating a preferential parking district that would run west to east from Laurel Terrace Drive to Laurel Canyon Boulevard, and north to south from Ventura Boulevard to Viewcrest Road.