DOWNEY — Residents of Corrigan Avenue and Buckles Street expressed frustration Tuesday as the City Council approved to expand their existing preferential parking zones.

The expansion will add seven residential properties on the west side of the 11700 block of Bellflower Boulevard, creating a preferential parking “district.”

This comes after at least one resident on Bellflower Boulevard had said that parking on that street had been impacted, due to the fact that they were unable to purchase permits and were therefore unable to park on Corrigan overnight.

Parking is not allowed on the west side of the 11700 block due to insufficient street width.

Residents in the Corrigan and Buckles neighborhoods are concerned, however, that the new addition will make what has been an already difficult parking situation even worse.

Vanessa Hernandez, who lives on Corrigan, said that the neighborhood has still not found relief despite becoming permitted.

“We still get people who are non-residents who do not pay for the permits to park on our block,” said Hernandez. “My husband is in law enforcement; he gets off late in the morning. He does have a sticker, but it doesn’t mean he has a parking [space] because we do have people who park that do not purchase our sticker for the block that we live on.

“Here, you’re saying you’re proposing a pilot program for the west side of Bellflower for the single-family residents, but like I mentioned we haven’t found relief ourselves, because we still struggle with this parking issue.”

Mayor Claudia M. Frometa said that “there appears to be a lack of enforcement in those streets.”

“We need to do a better job from a city perspective,” said Frometa. “Enforcement. We need to make sure that those that are parking where they are supposed to be parking have those permits, and if they don’t have those permits, then those tickets need to be handed out.”

She added that there have been discussions about utilizing the Downey Landing for its parking, however have made little ground in making that a reality.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten anywhere with the property management, and you can’t force the owners of that property to rent or do something with the city,” said Frometa.

Mayor Pro Tem Trujillo added that “We’re not going to give up on this.”

“I would like for two of us to meet with the owners of this location,” said Trujillo. “I would like a face to face with two council members. Let’s see if they give us the time of day, and let’s talk to them.”

The council voted 3-1 in favor of the expanded preferential zone, with Councilman Horn opposed.

City council restricts overnight parking near Downey Landing