The Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday approved a set of sweeping changes to parking rules at the harbor.

New rules are designed to reduce the number of people who park vehicles for excessive amounts of time in waterfront lots.

Currently, harbor slip permit holders can park their vehicles in the harbor lot for as long as they want, and the changes mean they can park for 30 consecutive days and then have to move their vehicles out of the lot for at least 72 hours before reparking it.

The Waterfront Department offers two types of long-term parking permits: a general harbor parking permit for $125 per year, and a boat slip permit for $95 per year.

”This has been an ongoing issue for many years,” Councilman Eric Friedman said. “These are coastal spaces. Public access to this lot is a public trust.”

In the past, general parking permit holders could park their vehicles for up to 72 hours, and then receive extensions to that limit on a case-by-case basis. Now, only people needing an extension for maritime reasons would be eligible to receive one.

The waterfront director will be able to manage all uses of the parking lots and deny issuing a permit if it interferes with coastal access or public parking, rather than allow everyone to buy harbor parking permits. Some tech companies downtown have requested parking permits for their employees.

The Waterfront Department believes members of the public are losing opportunities to park because many spaces are dominated by long-term parking or people using vehicles as storage.

Employees estimate that between 75 and 125 vehicles parked in waterfront lots never move.

The City Council voted 5-0, with councilmen Jason Dominguez and Randy Rowse abstaining from the vote. 

Dominguez abstained from the vote because he wanted to allow current slipholders to be grandfathered in, and the new ordinance only apply to new people who park in the lot. His motion did not receive a second.

Rowse stepped down from the vote to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest because he is a slip owner.

— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.