According to an analysis presented to the Rossmoor Homeowners Association at their July meeting, almost every city near Rossmoor does a better job of regulating parking and traffic around their public parks than the Rossmoor Community Services District (RCSD).
Throughout decades of development, the RCSD has added and improved athletic facilities without providing off-street parking to accommodate the many users of the Rossmoor park. The result is a highly congested and unsafe situation seriously impacting homeowners, according to the analysis presented to the RHA board by Van Zeitz.
The situation not only impacts Rossmoor Park but also Rush Park which is likely to get significantly worse as other nearby cities and the Los Alamitos School District increase their park-use fees for organized athletic groups.
Rossmoor is at risk of becoming the Walmart of local parks, low prices for everybody from residents to groups far away. Organized groups from as far away as Laguna Hills are now targeting Rossmoor’s parks for increased play. Such usage will increasingly limit the ability of casual users of the parks to walk their dogs, have impromptu games or quietly enjoy the public green space. RCSD, for example, has stopped reserving picnic tables when softball leagues play, hoping to limit the use of the park by non-athletic groups.
When Rossmoor Park was developed in the ‘70s, it was never designed to be a high-impact athletic facility, but rather a small neighborhood park for the local residents. Rossmoor residents have expressed concerns about an increase in high-impact activity, for Rush Park, too.
The analysis found that Rossmoor Park has 58 off-street parking slots. But under municipal codes as set forth by Long Beach, all 58 of those slots are needed by the basketball, tennis, picnic and tot lot activities. Based on the Long Beach code, there would be no off-street parking spaces left for the three softball fields, which at various times of the year attract as many as 300 vehicles per day. As a result, parking spills onto the street and congests traffic and blocks homeowners’ driveways in some cases, Zeitz’s analysis said. He brought pictures to back up his claim.
The homeowners association has asked RCSD to address such concerns of homeowners and ensure that casual users of Rossmoor parks have fair access to the facilities. The service district recently created a park policy committee, but has so far not taken any action to address the issues raised by the parking analysis, said Zeitz.
A number of solutions exist, according to Zeitz. RCSD could build additional parking to accommodate the existing uses or limit the use of the parks by organized groups so that at any given time the existing parking can handle the volume.
Gary Stewart is the Rossmoor Homeowners Association President
