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Street parking in Westwood is so crowded that some people resort to parking in red zones and hope

Studies concerning the lack of parking in Westwood are underway, and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation is considering a possible solution that may help smaller businesses in the area.

Officials at LADOT are discussing pricing for metered and structure parking in Westwood.

The widespread complaints from customers and businesses about the lack of parking fueled discussions at the department, said Alan Willis, principle transportation engineer for LADOT.

One of the solutions that department officials proposed is raising the rates on metered parking, Willis said.

He said currently customers would rather pay less for metered parking than go to off-street parking lots that charge more. By raising the prices on metered parking, a balance between metered and structured parking would be created. Customers would be encouraged to use the structured parking more frequently.

Raising the prices on meters would also benefit small business owners who want to get as many customers as possible into the parking spaces in front of their respective shops, he said.

“You want to price the meters so that it’s not worth (the customers’) while to dawdle,” he said.

The customers would pay for a short period of time and leave quickly, making the space available to other customers, he said.

Willis said the money from the raised rates would be used to build more parking structures in Westwood.

“(The city) built a parking structure by California Pizza Kitchen, but I think we still need more spaces,” said Hamid Entezari, owner of Top Shoes, a small business on Westwood Boulevard.

Metered parking in Westwood costs 50 cents per hour, while off-street parking averages three dollars an hour.

Unlike the smaller businesses that lose customers when metered parking is unavailable, larger chain stores can afford to build parking lots for their customers.

There are about 250 parking spaces at the Ralph’s parking lot.

“As busy as Westwood is, we’d probably lose about 10 to 20 percent of our customers if we didn’t have the parking lot,” said Esam Fasheh, manager of operations at Ralph’s.

Customers who want to shop at Ralph’s get two hours of free parking with a validation from the supermarket.

Fasheh said that due to the self-validating system, where a machine validates tickets, some Westwood shoppers park in the structure and shop elsewhere.

These customers are among the many who do not want to deal with finding and paying for street parking.

Other shoppers turn to public parking structures in Westwood, though they are more expensive, in order to avoid the trouble of finding a space on the street.

Jennifer Otani, a fourth-year English student, said she is usually able to find parking at the public parking structure on Broxton Avenue.

Otani said that when she opts to park on the street, the process is a hassle because she can rarely find parking without problems arising.

“Because of the parking situation I avoid going down to Westwood and to certain stores (where parking is difficult), unless I absolutely need something,” she said.