Q. Either because school is out, COVID-19 or for some other reason, people seem to be parking more often on city streets, reducing the number of places where residents and their guests can park. There is a house I walk by where the residents appear to have decided that the parking area in front of their home is their private property. They have placed orange cones on the public street and left them there for a few weeks now. The home has a garage and a driveway where vehicles can park. It seems they just do not like people parking in front of their house. What is the law? Is it OK for someone to just move the cones and park there?
– Helene Fransz, Irvine
A. Under state law, cones used in this fashion have no power at all.
“Putting cones out in front of your home on a public street has no legal weight,” Sgt.Karie Davies, a member or your city’s finest, told Honk via email. “If someone wants to move those cones and park there, they can. …
“If the street is private … someone can still move the cones and park there,” the sergeant said, “in a spot that is not specifically assigned to a specific unit.”
Davies was not aware of any California city with a law that would trump the state’s in this case.
The sergeant and Honk do advise that if anyone approaches the owner of such cones, do it as a friendly neighbor.
“We do not have these issues very often,” she said.
Q. I travel the 73 between Newport Coast and the I-405 most days. What is the construction in the center all about? There are no signs explaining it and web searches yield nothing. They’re adding HOV lanes? The work is going on between the Bonita Canyon Drive and Birch Street exits.
– Joe Zuffoletto Jr., Newport Coast
A. Lots of stuff going on out there on the 73, Joe, but nothing with carpool lanes.
“The work being done is concrete barrier work and shoulder reconstruction between Newport Coast and I-405 – no HOV lanes are being added,” said Sheilah Fortenberry, a spokeswoman for Caltrans, which maintains that highway, which for much of the way is a toll road.
Also, said Eugene Fields, a spokesman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which operates that toll road and siblings the 261, the 133 and the 241, signage is being improved as well, also requiring concrete barriers.
That project is on a bit of a hold, because a pair of owls have settled into the median and were joined by some bats, with the breeding season going on for a few more days.
Under state law, Fields said, the work must stop for now: “The work may continue after the end of the breeding season (when) the biologist will confirm that the nests are no longer active.”
A MacArthur Boulevard off-ramp is getting widened, and there is some work on the bridges underway out there as well.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk
