Parking illegally in surrounding neighborhoods will no longer be tolerated, and students will be fined or their car will be towed, Michael D’Amico, chief of EC’s police department, said.

At the beginning of the semester, some students parked in the surrounding neighborhoods due to the lack of parking spaces in the student parking lots.

‘It’s closer for me to the park in the EC neighborhood than in the EC parking lot,” Kossel Pang, electronic engineering major, said. ‘I don’t want to buy a parking permit to just stay at EC for one or two hours.”

EC parking permit rates, when compared to other colleges, are not as expensive, D’Amico said.

Students who want to park in these neighborhoods need to be aware of the street signs, D’Amico said. He also said that there are two signs on every block and students are responsible for noticing them.

For some residents living in the restricted parking area, students who park in their neighborhood aren’t a problem.

“Most of the students follow the rule in my area,” Eddie Tung, restricted parking resident, said. ” I would give them a chance as long as they are not blocking my way.”

However, residents who live in non-restricted areas, such as the areas behind Taco Bell and KFC, are becoming bothered by students parking in their neighborhood.

“Sometimes if my friends come to visit and there is no space for them I would feel so disturbed,” Susie Watanabe, a non-restricted parking resident, said.

The residential areas behind Taco Bell have already filed with the city of Torrance to form a parking district, Watanabe said.

Surrounding neighborhoods are controlled by the Gardena Police Department and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, campus police said.

“The ticket fees are generally double or triple than the EC parking violations,” D’Amico said, “make sure you park in the right area or you will have to pay for the ticket.”

Some students said that the reason they’re parking in the surrounding neighborhoods is because they’re having a hard time finding parking in EC parking lots, especially during peak hours.

“We understand that it’s sometimes unavoidable to park outside the campus, but make sure that you park legally, and never park in business areas because you will get towed immediately,” D’Amico said.

D’Amico also said that there will be a new parking structure in 2005 to reduce the parking problem.

“I understand the students’ frustration, and we will do our best to accommodate them during the peak period; however, we just can’t pull parking places out of a hat when they’re not in existence,” D’Amico said.