L.A. Wants to Meter About 200 Free Spaces on Venice's Abbot Kinney

The LA Express Park plan would also raise rates at six Venice city lots. Written comments are due Nov. 24.

Right now, about 200 curb spaces along Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice don't cost a thing. A city plan would put meters on every one of them.

The proposal is part of LA Express Park, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation's demand-priced parking program. Yo! Venice reported that a Zoom hearing on application CDP-21-002 starts at 6 p.m. today, Oct. 27. It's run by the city's Bureau of Engineering, which is weighing the plan's coastal development permit. The meters on Abbot Kinney are only the start.

Off the boulevard, the city would start charging in three lots that are free now, about 100 spaces in all, and put in pay stations that each serve several spaces. Six other city-owned lots, holding roughly 500 stalls, would see their base hourly rates go up, and so would curbside meters. Add the street and the lots together and roughly 300 spaces that are free today would start charging.

The meters themselves would change too. According to Yo! Venice, the upgraded units get color LED screens, sensors that detect parked cars, and tap-to-pay and text-to-pay. Those sensors are what make the system run: LADOT says on its Venice project page that Express Park sets rates by time of day based on how full each block gets. The plan also adds up to 30 signs for people on foot and up to 20 for drivers.

None of this is new. LADOT's page says the Abbot Kinney meters started as a request from Mike Bonin, the 11th District councilmember at the time, and the Abbot Kinney Merchants Association. They wanted spaces to turn over faster so more shoppers could get in. That version called for 196 metered spaces with a two-hour limit from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, and it went to a January 2020 open house at Westminster Avenue Elementary School on Abbot Kinney.

Venice has already seen this system at work. When Express Park pricing took effect in Venice in July 2019, LADOT says, the average Venice rate rose from $1.69 an hour to $1.99. Mornings got cheaper and the rest of the day went to an average of $2.13. That's the model now aimed at the boulevard.

Yo! Venice's report doesn't say what the new hourly rates would be. People can testify at tonight's hearing, and written comments have to arrive by the end of the day Nov. 24 to count before a decision is made, Yo! Venice reported.

Until a decision comes, those curb spaces on Abbot Kinney stay free.

Source: yovenice.com, retrieved October 27, 2026. Other sources: laexpresspark.org.