Redondo Beach Walks Back Parking Ban During Street Sweeping

REDONDO BEACH, CA — The Redondo Beach City Council approved a policy that would officially allow residents to park on the streets after a street sweeper has already passed during enforcement times.

The city is walking back on its previous decision made in July to prohibit street parking during all hours posted on street sweeping signs. For years, residents had grown used to a courtesy rule that allowed street parking after sweepers had passed.

After the abrupt change, residents expressed their frustrations with the city about the difficulties of avoiding parking citations under the new rules.

"The volatility that went on social media right after this was amazing, how quickly people turn from nice to nasty," Mayor Jim Light said at the meeting.

In 2024 up until Aug. 15, the city has issued about 16,500 citations for street sweeping parking violations, which works out to about 90 to 100 citations a day according to Chief of Police Joe Hoffman.

At Tuesday's City Council meeting, the council unanimously voted to approve the amendment

In an attempt to provide more information to residents on the status of street sweeping in their neighborhoods, the city has begun working on a system that would provide real-time information about sweepers.

"I have never lived in a city where there is an exception to a posted sign and the effort that the Police Department is putting into being responsive to the residents' needs and how we can accommodate our restrictive parking spaces is above and beyond," Councilmember Paige Kaluderovic said.

The program is still in development, but ideally, it would tell residents if a sweeper and parking enforcement has been down a particular street or if it is still in progress. While on the route, employees will update their location and status in real time.

Different colors on specific segments will signify the status, Hoffman said, with red meaning sweeping hasn't started, yellow meaning sweeping is in progress and green meaning sweeping is complete.

"We're now on the stage where we're going to be able to start piloting this before we roll it out to the public," Hoffman said. "It's been an excellent collaboration between IT, Engineering, Public Works and the police department to even get this pilot off the ground in a short amount of time. So I'm excited to see this roll out."

Hoffman said the police department and other city agencies will continue to monitor the street sweeping routes in the coming weeks to ensure time is used efficiently.