Rohnert Park approves overnight parking ban in five lots, including park-and-ride near SMART

The death of two people in the past month on railroad tracks at a busy Rohnert Park intersection prompted the City Council on Tuesday to ban overnight parking on five city-owned lots, including a park-and-ride area that has recently become crowded by homeless residents living out of vehicles near the rail tracks.

The council voted 4-0 to approve the new restriction, meant to permanently outlaw the growing number of RVs, campers and cars that have taken up extended stays in the Roberts Lake Road park-and-ride at Golf Course Drive.

The intersection is a short distance from a Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit crossing where in less than two years of service, three people, including a homeless woman at the end of June, have been struck and killed by passenger trains.

“I’ve been out there a lot of times, and people are walking along the tracks or crossing the intersection and not always paying attention to the lights,” Mayor Gina Belforte said in an interview Wednesday. “What I’m trying to do is make sure there’s not another accidental death at that intersection.”

City officials pointed to a measure that already prohibits camping in the Roberts Lake Road lot, but said updating the ban to include parking from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. would make enforcement more straightforward. The City Council swiftly approved the item Tuesday without discussion.

The other lots where the new restriction will apply are the city’s community center, senior center, Gold Ridge Recreation Center and Spreckels Performing Arts Center.

Rohnert Park allows vehicles to be parked on all city streets for up to 72 hours before they must be moved.

The new ban is expected to take effect in the next two weeks as signs are posted. After that, people violating the rule will be given a grace period before their vehicle is towed as part of what Mary Grace Pawson, the city’s director of development services, called the “friendly portion of enforcement.”

Two residents spoke in favor of the parking ban, citing safety concerns for homeowners and patrons of nearby businesses.

“I can’t believe what’s happened to the park-and-ride lot. Those vehicles would not even pass code to get on the street,” said 44-year resident Charmaine Padilla, 66. “It’s not a good environment for anyone.”

But the Rohnert Park-Cotati area’s homeless population is on the rise, up about 24% over the previous count, to 173, according to the county’s most recent homeless census.

Those who have been staying in the park-and-ride lot say they have no other place to go, and seek to continue living out of their vehicles near places that meet their needs, such as the Chevron gas station and cheap food options a short walk away.

They contend they’re being made a scapegoat for the death of the 30-year-old homeless woman who was hit and killed on the railroad tracks June 27. A 66-year-old Santa Rosa man was struck and killed while bicycling with headphones on the next day. Both deaths were ruled accidents.

“I don’t choose to live this way. This is not how I want to live,” said Melanie Dawson, 47, who has been staying in the parking lot for about three weeks in a RV with her boyfriend. “I do understand from the city’s point of view that this doesn’t look good. But, I mean, it’s like they want us to just disappear. I would love to disappear, but where to?”

Two homeless advocates, and a homeless man who said he’s been living in the lot addressed the City Council Tuesday night.

They requested that council members consider pairing any ban on parking with a designated area where homeless people with vehicles can stay overnight with bathrooms, showers and garbage services.

“What you’re talking about doing now … is taking a bunch of people who have relative safety and throwing them out on the street,” said Adrienne Lauby, co-founder of Homeless Action of Sonoma County. “This is not going to make them more secure, and it’s not going to make the neighborhoods around Rohnert Park more secure. There are other ways to do this. I’m not saying it’s simple, but it’s not hard.”

The first formal “safe parking” site in the Bay Area opened in Oakland near the Coliseum Bay Area Rapid Transit station last month, and a similar concept was recently proposed in San Francisco at a BART parking lot near Balboa Park.

Advocates have long called on Santa Rosa, which has the county’s largest homeless population at roughly 1,800 people, to establish such a site, but the City Council has yet to act.

Cecily Kagy, the homeless outreach specialist in Rohnert Park-Cotati for the nonprofit Committee on the Shelterless, or COTS, has said a designated parking lot would be beneficial to the area’s homeless population.

Councilman Jake Mackenzie, who was absent the council meeting, has also said he’d like to explore the idea as part of a more comprehensive review of the city’s growing homelessness issue, and Belforte said Wednesday she’s open to doing more to help the city’s homeless.

The City Council is set to hold an Aug. 13 public study session on homelessness, including a presentation of ideas for additional services for the city’s residents without consistent shelter - right around the time when the overnight parking ban will take effect.

“No one thought this would was the be-all, end-all of it,” said Pawson. “We really are looking for policy direction from the council on this one. This is a first step to be more responsive to train strikes on Golf Course Drive.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.