SEVENTH STREET —The Downtown Santa Monica Post Office customer parking lot is now open, a spokesman for the United States Postal Service said Friday.
A temporary banner-sign has been installed until permanent signage is in place.
There are 20 customer parking spaces in the lot, including a handicap spot.
Residents and Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Santa Monica) recently complained about the current configuration of street parking, which users said is dangerous.
The parking spaces are perpendicular to the sidewalk and a bike lane prevents drivers from pulling all the way up to the curb, patrons said. The orientation of the spaces also requires drivers to pull out across a double yellow line into northbound traffic.
At the end of June 2013 the postal service shuttered the historic Fifth Street post office and sold it to a movie production house for $25 million in an effort to close a multi-billion-dollar budget gap.
The new facility has roughly 40 on-street metered parking space, which is more than at the old location, but patrons still complained about the configuration and requested on-site parking.
kevinh@www.smdp.com
