After the city removed RVs from Forest Lawn Drive, it also banned parking — for everyone
Nancy Sexton was elated when city crews cleared out more than 50 RVs in December that had been parked near her business for months, blocking parking spots and leaving behind trash and waste on Forest Lawn Drive.
Then she realized the long stretch of road near Barham Boulevard in the Hollywood Hills was suddenly off limits for not just parked RVs, but all parked vehicles. Much of the the curb was painted red. No parking signs lined the sidewalk.
"It's a dumb decision," said Sexton, who owns the Muse Rooms, which offers leased office spaces. "It's frustrating."
The more than 50 RVs, which had been stationed along the winding road for months as a semi-permanent living encampment, were removed in December as part of the city's operation known as Inside Safe. One goal of the program, which is part of Mayor Karen Bass' initiative to bring people living on the streets indoors, is to end the cycle of homeless encampments being cleared by the city only to return a few weeks later.
But days after the RVs were removed, Sexton said, the curb was painted red and parking was limited. The new red zone is about a quarter mile long, running between Warner Bros. Studios' Gate 9 entrance and North Coyote Canyon Drive.
The areas that do allow parking, meanwhile, have two-hour limits.
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City officials also said the decision to restrict parking was done out of fire safety concerns, not to keep the RVs from resettling along the road. Sexton has her doubts.
The lack of parking along the street suddenly imposed a new, unexpected expense on her clients, prompting some to look elsewhere. The red curb has also become an irritation for some students and workers at the New York Film Academy and businesses nearby.
Since the no-parking signs went up, Sexton said, she's lost two regular members and two potential clients. All of them had aired concern about the lack of street parking and the added expense of paying $12 a day at the parking structure on site.
The parking fee, Sexton said, doubled the monthly costs for some members.
"I didn't know how much of a problem it was going to be until there were people saying, 'I can't pay $12 a day,' " she said. "I'm really feeling it now."
The situation highlights some of the unintended results as city officials look to address homelessness and the concerns of businesses and homeowners affected by makeshift encampments, whether they involve tents, vehicles or both.
RV encampments have sprung up across the city amid a housing crisis that has left many people priced out of permanent homes. Local officials have looked for ways to address the issue, including new regulations that have targeted overnight RV parking.
According to the mayor's office, the Inside Safe program has addressed 39 encampments so far, moving more than 2,400 people into interim housing and an additional 440 into permanent housing since December 2022. The removal of the RVs on Forest Lawn Drive was first reported by Los Angeles Public Press.
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Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl said the RVs that were removed from Forest Lawn Drive were themselves causing parking issues in the area, as well as raising other significant safety and public health concerns.
Members of the surrounding community have said removing the RVs "has helped on all three fronts," Seidl said in a statement. "This operation has saved lives.
Stella Stahl, spokesperson for Councilmember Nithya Raman, said the city has helped many of the RV residents along Forest Lawn Drive to find housing indoors.
In a statement, Stahl credited the decision to limit parking to a request by the Los Angeles Fire Department, which called the area a "high fire severity zone." A 2019 brush fire in the area burned more than 30 acres and threatened homes and businesses.
In a Sept. 19, 2023, letter, LAFD Assistant Chief Dean Zipperman asked the city Department of Transportation to install "Tow Away No Stopping Any Time" restrictions on the road due to the stopped and parked vehicles there.
To avoid the hassle of looking for parking, cinematography students Sanchin Vinay, Yifan Xiang and Davide Picci carpool to their classes at the New York Film Academy, which shares a building with the Muse Rooms. Eliminating the RVs has opened some spots to them, although Picci said they'd been able to find spaces on the street before — "really far down."
Sometimes they pay the $12 for the daily parking to avoid being late for class. Carpooling helps cushion the cost.
Leslie Bates, a film production instructor, said she heard of students and faculty members having "volatile" interactions with the RV residents.
Now that the RVs have been removed, there are fewer public parking spaces, but she said she finds the city hasn't been enforcing the two-hour parking limit or red zones along Forest Lawn Drive. Some people park there regardless.
Stahl said Raman's office has received only one complaint about the parking. Nevertheless, the office is reaching out to the Department of Transportation to perhaps change the two-hour parking zones.
Others in the area said the RV encampment had already taken a toll on businesses.
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Marie Landsberger, a fitness manager at Toluca Lake Tennis & Fitness Club, an upscale gym that mainly services local film directors, producers and actors, said parking began to be an issue after the COVID-19 pandemic, when RVs and trailers started staying on Forest Lawn Drive.
At least one person canceled their membership after they told her they had to step over a man sleeping on the street. Others complained about the encampment, with tarps and trash about, being an eyesore.
"They weren't following the rules; they were just dumping tanks on the street," Landsberger said of the RVs' occupants. "There was feces floating down the sidewalk."
The fitness club has parking for members, but employees struggled to find street parking.
"I don't miss them," she said of the RV residents. "They frightened our members."
Landsberger said she doesn't mind the new restrictions because the red zone is on the opposite side of the street from her business and doesn't affect it much.
"We don't encourage people to walk across the street anymore. It's too dangerous," Landsberger said of the speedy cars driving down the five-lane road. Most members and employees opt to park on the side of the club instead of trying to jaywalk across the street.
"It's like a freeway through here," she said.
Sexton said she was at first glad that the city had addressed the encampment, but grew frustrated as the consequences of the decision to ban parking became apparent.
She's in the third year of a 10-year lease for her business, she said, and if public parking had not been available for her members, she probably would not have located her business there.
"Imagine you're coming in and you're paying $250 a month for your co-working spacing and you come in and you can't find parking," she said. "You leave."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
