Several Los Altos High students attended a Los Altos City Council meeting to argue against the high school’s new parking restrictions on February 25. In a unanimous vote, the city council decided to keep the parking restrictions.

The city council modified the street regulations around Los Altos High to allow two-hour parking from 8 am to 12 pm rather than exclusively restricted, but maintained the no-parking restriction on streets north of Jardin Drive as well as on Valencia Drive. The council plans to implement these modifications this summer.

Los Altos High School’s lack of parking has been an ongoing issue since early Dec. 2024 when students at Los Altos High received an email from assistant principal Derek Miyahara that formally prohibited parking on the backstreets of Jardin Drive.

Shortly after this message, they found themselves unable to park on streets including Valencia Drive, Panchita Way, Alicia Way, Los Niños Way, Distel Drive and Casita Way.

Student drivers without a parking permit are often left to park blocks away in morning rush hour, hoping to make it to exams on time, or risk parking on the streets and being ticketed up to $54.

The new parking restrictions sparked backlash, as many students rely on driving themselves to school and there is already limited parking, consisting of 316 spots for both staff and students and only 62 for students.

“Where do you want us to park, the sky?” Los Altos High junior Hannah Cohen, said.

Cohen, who commutes from Mountain View, is often unable to find parking in the mornings and was even tardy to an exam during December final exams, which she attributes to the new parking restrictions.

“Overall, the ‘no parking’ thing is really dumb considering that we have a very small student parking lot,” Cohen said. “If they [the Los Altos city council] want to take away parking surrounding the school, they’re [going to] have to take initiative.”

Some students say that the call for parking restrictions originated from homeowners who faced issues with students parking on their property.

“My mom literally picks up litter and garbage from our lawn every single day,” said an anonymous Los Altos High student who lives on Los Niños.

According to the Los Altos City Council, homeowners have asked to implement parking restrictions around the high school for years, citing blocked driveways, an impact on mail deliveries and excessive littering as some of their claims.

“We’ve made a lot of changes with our parking already, as much as we can,” Los Altos High Principal Tracey Runare said.

However, despite the conflict over the new city council-sanctioned parking rules, the Los Altos High administration has tentative plans to address the parking issue. According to Runare, old portables on campus have been removed to make space for new parking spots for staff, which will open more parking for students in the main lot.

Alongside the administration’s taking action, Los Altos High senior Osvaldo Valenzuela has been speaking out about the new parking restrictions since January.

“I felt it was unjust,” Valenzuela said. “I think about all of the hundreds of students that have to drive and park, and I feel for them.”

Valenzuela, as well as a group of seniors including Santiago Rangel, Theodore Peter, Nathan Carranza and Milan Grbovic, initially sent out an email and survey to Los Altos High students after winter break ended, asking them to attend a city council meeting on Jan. 14.

Valenzuela and his team have been similarly affected by the parking restrictions, which prompted them to plead their case to the city council.

“I’ve seen safety issues in the back [of the school] while biking to school, especially on Jardin [Dr.], and the traffic situation has always been bad, but to me, it’s worse now and more unsafe than it was before the restrictions were put in,” Peter said.

Valenzuela said he and his team hope to continue advocating for Los Altos High student drivers to have sufficient parking at more city council meetings.

“I don’t believe that we’re ever going to go back to the condition where all of the side streets are completely free to park on. I think that ship has sailed. But figuring out a solution will give us some of that parking back,” Valenzuela said.

If you are a student at Los Altos High who wants to get involved in advocacy against the parking restrictions, you can reach out to Valenzuela at 100028598@mvla.net.