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Leaders in the Westwood community are trying to organize a system to improve parking in Westwood Village and increase the area’s dwindling consumerism.

Shoppers are constantly driving around the streets of the Village, searching for metered parking near shops of their choice.

The only public parking structure in Westwood Village is available on Broxton Avenue, but it charges higher rates than the metered parking rates. Off-street parking costs $2.50 per hour more than metered parking.

One potential solution that has been proposed and debated is raising the meter prices.

UCLA professor Donald Shoup came up with the idea, proposing that raising meter prices would make shoppers more willing to use off-street parking.

The money collected from the public parking lot would then be used to pay private lots to allow shoppers 90 free minutes of parking.

Alan Willis, principal transportation engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, also said prices on the meters should be raised to solve the parking problem.

Some members of the Westwood community say they do not want the city to increase the meter rates, believing there are better ways to make parking more convenient for shoppers.

It does not make sense to increase the price of street parking to force people into parking lots they cannot afford to pay for, said Jay Handal, president of the West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

“There has to be an overall parking strategy in Westwood, not a Band-Aid strategy,” he said.

Some merchants agree, and say raising the prices might drive consumers away.

“We already have high meter rates compared to the rest of the city,” said Jeffrey Abell, owner of Sarah Leonard Fine Jewelers.

Abell has made proposals to Los Angeles city councilman Jack Weiss’ office with his own ideas for improving the parking situation.

Abell believes a more plausible solution to the parking problem is to provide more public parking to customers. These public lots would provide two hours of free parking with validation from merchants, he said.

Abell’s plan includes the creation of a new Business Improvement District in Westwood, an organization created for the purpose of improving business in Westwood and making the area more consumer friendly.

Westwood’s earlier BID dissolved in 2002 after issues concerning mismanagement arose. A new BID has yet to be organized.

Abell said if a new BID were organized, it could create a system of validation that would be fair to the owners of private lots and cheaper for merchants, he said.

Approximately 20 to 30 percent of the merchants in Westwood validate parking.

Many merchants do not participate in the validation system because it is costly, said Philip Gabriel, owner of Scrubs Unlimited.

Merchants must pay for the stickers used to validate parking tickets.

Some merchants will only validate if customers meet their minimum purchase requirement, he said.

Gabriel is working on his own solution for the parking problem.

His proposal would give customers two hours of free parking without validation in structures. In return, the overall rates would rise by $1 or $2 after the initial two hours.

Many members of the Westwood community believe Weiss should organize an improved parking strategy for the Village.

Handal believes Westwood needs a “global parking situation” that would be inclusive of the 14 private parking lots in the Village.

The “global parking situation” would bring public and private parking lots in Westwood Village together with a fixed rate for parking, he said.

Abell believes Weiss should bring the owners and operators of Westwood’s public and private lots together for a roundtable discussion. There, they would work together to organize a parking strategy for Westwood, he said.

“I have called for (Weiss) to take full leadership ... but there has been no progress,” Handal said.

Other community members say they have had similar experiences with the councilman’s office.

“I think there’s been a communication gap between what the councilman’s office is doing and what we want to have done,” Gabriel said.

Though the debate on parking solutions continues, Abell, Gabriel and Handal all say Weiss is not working with the community or establishing leadership in Westwood.

Weiss’ office did not respond to several phone calls made last week.

“I implore Councilman Weiss to pull together that roundtable because the economic viability of Westwood depends on parking,” Handal said.