A new solution to an old problem — insufficient parking for residents in downtown Bolinas — will soon be implemented.

Marin County supervisors have approved a permit parking program to be administered by the Bolinas Community Public Utility District. Under the program, some of the new parking restrictions will apply only to vehicles that are more than 22 feet long.

“This is the culmination of a lot of work,” said Bruce Bowser, chair of a parking committee that recommended the change. “After four years of meetings and tireless efforts, we’re here.”

The utility district will confirm residents’ eligibility for a permit and coordinate with the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, which will enforce the restrictions.

“This has been a multiyear effort,” Supervisor Dennis Rodoni said. “I have files in my office that go back 15 or 16 years talking about parking in Bolinas. This is the second effort since I’ve been on the board to create some parking restrictions that work for both the community and visitors.”

Brighton Avenue residents deal with the most visitors because their street is the primary access point for surfers and has nearby county park amenities and open space that attracts overnight campers.

“It’s been chaos for the more than 32 years that I’ve lived here,” Bowser said after the supervisors’ meeting on Jan. 14. “We just can’t deal with the overwhelming number of visitors.”

“It’s primarily beachgoers,” Bowser said. “Before Measure X went into enforcement, we had numerous people using the downtown streets as a dumping ground for their unwanted or unused vehicles.”

Bowser said the parking and traffic problems in Bolinas became substantially worse after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“People weren’t working,” he said. “They decided that if they weren’t in the office, they might as well recreate.”

“It has become increasingly difficult over time for residents to secure on-street parking,” a staff report that went to supervisors said.

The report said residents have resorted to carpooling and parking farther away from their homes to avoid peak parking demand times and secure overnight parking.

The report added that the parking problems are of particular concern for older residents with mobility challenges. Fifty-six percent of Bolinas residents are over the age of 60. Residents there have a median age of 65.4 years.

In 2018, 52% of Bolinas voters gave their support to Measure X, an advisory measure calling for Marin County to prohibit overnight parking for large vehicles on Brighton Avenue, Park Avenue and Wharf Road between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Implemented as a demonstration project in two phases beginning in April 2020, Measure X expired in November 2023.

“The success was somewhat uneven, partially because of COVID,” Dan Dawson, a county public works planner, told supervisors. “Many things upended this study.”

Following the supervisors’ meeting, Bowser said, “What we ran into was that the sheriff’s department didn’t feel that they could enforce the Measure X ordinance. They just didn’t feel they were justified in writing tickets.”

Marin County sheriff’s Sgt. Adam Schermerhorn said, “Ultimately, the language previously used in the parking ordinance was not clear and made it difficult to understand for both law enforcement and parking enforcement, and more so for individuals who were trying to understand it.”

Rodoni said, “The new ordinance corrects all the issues and will be enforced.”

But Anthony Prince, lead organizer and attorney for the California Homeless Union, said the restrictions are unconstitutional.

“They are going to put people at risk,” he said.

Prince said people living in recreational vehicles are one of the fastest-growing segments of the unhoused population in the country.

Prince said jurisdictions throughout California are moving to impose parking restrictions similar to the ones proposed for Bolinas following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Johnson v. Grants Pass in June. The court ruled that enforcing camping regulations against homeless residents is not “cruel and unusual punishment.”

“They’re taking that as a green light,” Prince said.

Previously, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued two rulings protecting the right for people to live in their vehicle and camp.

Instead of prohibiting large vehicles on both sides of Brighton Avenue, Wharf Road and Park Avenue overnight, the new permit parking program is more targeted.

Any vehicle lacking a residential parking sticker will be prohibited from parking on a specific segment of the east side of Brighton Ave from 2 to 5 a.m. Likewise, vehicles lacking parking stickers will be barred from a segment on the south side of Wharf Road and a different segment on the north side of Wharf Road from 2 to 5 a.m.

Parking of vehicles more than 22 feet long will be prohibited on a segment of the west side of Brighton Avenue from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Parking of vehicles more than 22 feet long will be barred on a segment of the south side of Wharf Road at any time. Parking of vehicles longer than 22 feet will also be prohibited at all times on a segment of the north side of Wharf Road.

Despite approving a resolution containing these changes, supervisors still must adopt an ordinance establishing the parking program before it can become effective.

“We’re looking to have everything in place by springtime before things really heat up in more ways than one,” Bowser said.