Lomita Municipal Code Art. 1 In General

There is hereby adopted by reference that certain vehicles and traffic code known as the Los Angeles County Vehicles and Traffic Code, and such code shall be the vehicles and traffic code of the city.

(Ord. No. 204, § 1, 9-15-75; Ord. No. 377, § 1, 12-3-84)

Whenever the city council finds that the parking of vehicles at all or certain hours of the day upon any portion of a highway or of a private street which is open to the public constitutes a traffic hazard or impedes the free flow of traffic, or both, the city manager or designee shall erect signs stating that on such portion of such highway or such private street parking is prohibited at all or certain hours of the day.

(Ord. No. 614, § 3, 2-7-00; Ord. No. 699, § 1, 4-2-07)

The city shall employ one (1) or more parking enforcement officers, who shall be authorized to issue citations and be responsible for the enforcement of all parking and nonmoving traffic regulations in effect in the city. Said officer shall also perform any additional and consistent duties at the instruction of the city manager.

(Ord. No. 119, § 1, 12-6-71; Ord. No. 699, § 1, 4-2-07)

(a) Ratification of prior traffic markings. All traffic markings, stop signs and traffic signs which are existing in the city on the date of incorporation thereof, which were erected and placed by the officers and officials of the County of Los Angeles, are hereby declared to be the official traffic signs and regulations of the City of Lomita, and all matters pertaining thereto are hereby ratified and confirmed by the city council.

(b) Erection of signs. The superintendent of streets is hereby directed to erect appropriate signs indicating the limitations set forth in this chapter.

(a) Prohibited. No person shall park any type of motor vehicle and/or attached trailer upon a roadway, parkway, street, public right-of-way, or parking lot for the purpose of:

(1) Displaying such vehicle for sale; or

(2) Greasing or repairing such vehicle except repairs necessitated by an emergency; or

(3) Being occupied or used as a dwelling unit.

(b) Restriction on advertising. No person shall suspend, place or attach any advertising sign on the exterior of a vehicle parked upon a public street, but the foregoing shall not be deemed to apply to any sign painted directly upon or permanently affixed to the body or an integral part or fixture of a vehicle for permanent decor, identity or display, and which does not extend beyond the overall width or height of such vehicle.

(c) Penalty. The violation of any provision of this section is declared to be an infraction and shall be punishable by a twenty-five dollar ($25.00) fine.

Pursuant to sections 22651(i) and 22651.3 of the Vehicle Code of the State of California, if any vehicle has been issued five (5) or more notices of violation for the same offense under this section and the owner or person in control of such vehicle has not responded, the vehicle may be impounded until that person furnishes to the impounding agency evidence of his or her identity and an address within this state at which he or she can be located and satisfactory evidence that bail has been deposited for all notices of parking violations issued for the vehicle.

The vehicle shall be released to the legal owner or person in control of the vehicle if that person pays the cost of towing and storing the vehicle and submits evidence of payment of outstanding fines for the infractions.

(Ord. No. 430, 1-3, 7-5-88)

(a) Removal to safe place. Towing or removal under this section may be initiated by the city manager or his or her designee, including, but not limited to the city's community safety officers, parking enforcement officers, code enforcement officers, or the county sheriff, to remove to a safe place every vehicle which has been parked or left standing upon a highway for seventy-two (72) or more consecutive hours.

(1) "Safe place" defined. As used in this section the words "safe place" include, but are not confined to, any garage, parking lot or open space owned by, maintained by, or under the jurisdiction of, the County of Los Angeles, and also every privately owned garage the owner or proprietor of which will accept such vehicles.

(2) For the purposes of this section, the vehicle shall be considered to have remained parked/left standing, unless the vehicle has been moved at least one hundred (100) feet from the position previously located. The only exceptions being vehicles which moved across the street from their location or around the corner of their location, if moved less than one hundred (100) feet.

(Ord. No. 299, 1, 7-2-79; Ord. No. 859, § 2, 1-16-24; Ord. No. 884, § 4(Exh. A), 2-17-26)

Cross reference— Removal of abandoned vehicles on private property and public property other than highways, § 8-2.01 et seq.

(a) Vision safety parking zones may be established by the city council adjacent to any intersection of two (2) or more streets where at least one of said streets is not controlled by stop signs or traffic signals.

(b) It shall be unlawful for any vehicle, except passenger vehicles less than five (5) feet in height with windows on all sides that are transparent and unobstructed, to park in an area designated as a vision safety parking zone.

(c) This regulation shall not be effective unless and until the city has caused signs to be erected to designate the limits of the vision safety zone and to define the provisions of subsection (b).

(Ord. No. 330, 1, 9-21-81)

Within the city's downtown commercial zone, all on-street parking and parking within city-owned public parking lots shall be subject to the time restrictions established in the City of Lomita Downtown Parking Policy, approved by resolution of the city council on August 20, 2019, and as may be amended from time to time by the city council. Amendments to said policy shall be initiated by either the city council or the city manager.

(Ord. No. 804, § 2, 9-3-19)