Rancho Palos Verdes’ Del Cerro Park has become such a hot spot for hikers drawn by social media to nearby trails that city leaders want to crack down on out-of-towners taking up parking and spilling into neighborhoods.

Homeowners complained Tuesday about chatty hikers slamming car doors at dawn and leaving trash in the streets at a packed City Council meeting, where officials moved to red stripe one side of Crenshaw Boulevard and let only homeowners park on residential streets.

Neighbors said that by midmorning — even on weekdays — dozens of vehicles line Crenshaw Boulevard from Seacrest Road almost to Crest Road as hikers make their way to trail heads at the entrance to the Portuguese Bend Reserve.

They attribute the influx of visitors in the past few years to social media lists of hiking destinations in Los Angeles County.

A similar effect has taken place at Abalone Cove, where visitorship has more than doubled in the past few years.

“Rancho Palos Verdes has clearly become more and more popular to the residents of Southern California, and over 10 million people see this Peninsula as a playground,” City Manager Doug Willmore said at the start of a public hearing on the issue, which he called a balancing act between addressing complaints and keeping the area accessible.

Starting sometime next month, only homeowners in the Del Cerro, Island View and Rancho Crest neighborhoods and their guests will be allowed to park on residential streets with special permits. Then, in August, the north side of Crenshaw Boulevard will be painted red from Seacrest to Valley View Roads.

Del Cerro Homeowners Association President Megan Moore said her neighborhood has seen “a dramatic increase” in crime and graffiti in the past two years.

“Many residents feel it’s a result of the increase in the number of visitors to the preserve who have now become familiar with our neighborhood,” she said. “Social media is chock-full of free advertising for the preserve.”

But Sgt. Thomas Arellano of the Lomita sheriff’s station said crime actually has decreased in the area since a slight rise in 2012. He said only five crimes have been reported this year.

“The deputies are saying there is definitely a significant increase in vehicles and people, but as far as crime, we have not seen a significant change,” he said, though he acknowledged graffiti often goes unreported.

The council’s decision to eliminate parking on one side of Crenshaw Boulevard will bring the amount of parallel spaces down from 82 to 40, but a proposal to create more spaces by putting angled parking on the other side was met with resistance.

“This is going to clearly cause some type of accident,” Councilman Anthony Misetich said. “My worst fear is people drive up there and park at an angled parking space, they have young kids, they run out into the street and they get hit by a car.”

Neighbors also did not like the idea of putting in pay stations, even though Rancho Palos Verdes residents would be exempt from fees.

Miriam Varend said the stations and signage “are an aesthetic blight in a unique, bucolic and beautiful residential area” that would create a “de facto commercialized parking lot that we would have to drive through to access our homes.”

Councilman Brian Campbell suggested designating 16 spots on Park Place next to Del Cerro Park only for residents who would display passes, an idea city staff will explore.

“Let’s test drive this,” he said. “If it doesn’t work or if we need to tweak it, we can adjust it very quickly. We’re not building a bunch of pay stations.”

Other suggestions included lowering the 40-mph speed limit on Crenshaw Boulevard and having visitors pay to park at City Hall, St. John Fisher Church or the Peninsula Center and take shuttles to the reserve, but Recreation and Parks Director Cory Linder said that arrangement would be difficult and costly.

While most of the audience applauded the council for imposing the restrictions, others said reducing the overall number of spaces on an already packed thoroughfare will only drive visitors into different neighborhoods.

“We don’t know what the unintended consequences will be yet, but if someone drives an hour to go on a hike, they’re not going to turn around and go home because they can’t find a parking space,” Willmore said, suggesting having city personnel patrol the area and issue parking citations. “This proposal isn’t very successful without enforcement.”