Former Apple Tree parking lot opens for business

It took complaints from many different people and organizations in Ocean Beach, but the parking lot and shrubbery surrounding the now-shuttered Apple Tree market was trimmed and weeded so it could open today, June 1.

Mark Fitzgerald, area supervisor of Laz/Sunset Parking Services, was there on May 31 with his workers, installing a new parking pay station and getting rid of the unwanted vegetation. Fitzgerald said 77 much-needed parking spaces would be available on June 1. During the next week or so, workers will restripe the parking lines and that will open up about a dozen more spaces.

Monday through Friday, parking will cost two dollars an hour, with a five-dollar maximum; on Saturdays and Sundays, it will cost three dollars an hour with an eight-dollar maximum.

Laz and Sunset Parking leases eight lots in O.B. and about eighty-five in the city of San Diego. There is still no word on what will become of the former Apple Tree, though several months ago there was talk of another discount supermarket chain moving in.