FULLERTON – Peggy Harding watched Wednesday as a neighbor pounded her fists on a parked car, yelling at the driver that "you can't park here!"

It's become a rite of fall in her Balfour Avenue neighborhood, a quarter mile south of California State University, Fullerton, where classes began this week.

Record enrollment and a blocked-off campus parking lot, combined with an increasing number of one-hour parking zones in residential areas to the west and north, have funneled more cars than ever into Harding's Chapman Park neighborhood.

It's especially bad during the first week of school, when students arrive in greater numbers to handle registration, buy books and take care of other start-of-semester needs.

"It's so dangerous getting out of the driveway," said Harding, a 41-year Balfour resident. "Not only that, they throw trash on the curbs and their alarms go off constantly."

Others have played witness to conflicts with student commuters. Clarke Avenue resident Nancy Bock said one of her neighbors hollered at a student whose car partially blocked her driveway. The student grabbed her bike from her car's rack and rode off.

Chapman Avenue resident Maynard Keene, a 20-year resident, said the cars prevent street sweepers from doing their job. So he gets up early to sweep the roadway himself.

"But I know Cal State is going to solve their problem sooner or later," said Keene, who delivers Hostess products to the campus.

Cal State officials hope to solve the problem with a 2,500-space parking structure under construction at Nutwood Avenue and State College Boulevard, but that will take another year.

Not all neighbors plan to wait.

Balfour residents have already won protections. The City Council on Aug. 5 approved one-hour signs for the street between Commonwealth and Derek avenues.

Bock's block is also lobbying City Hall.

"Our neighborhood sent a letter to council members at the last meeting," Bock said. "All we're asking is for permits that would allow homeowners and friends to use the parking spaces."

With an estimated record enrollment of 32,000 students at CSUF, the majority of whom are on the Fullerton campus, parking is at a premium.

Aric Tortorea transferred to the campus this year from Santiago Canyon College in Orange.

On Wednesday, he circled a dozen curbs before squeezing his neon blue sports car into a lone gap along a string of parked cars crowding Balfour Avenue.

"I've gone from blessing to nightmare," said Tortorea, of Santa Ana. "At Santiago, it took me two minutes to get to class. Here, they should include a bottle of water with the $99 parking permit that we can't even use."

CSUF sold out of its 19,000 all-day parking permits by Wednesday afternoon, university spokeswoman Paula Selleck said. The permits, allowing access to 7,000 spaces, cost $99 a semester.

"We figure there's a turnaround of three cars per space per day," Selleck said.

Once the all-day passes sold out, the campus began selling a $99 permit that lets students park from 3 p.m. and later.

By 5 p.m. Wednesday, Fullerton police had issued 15 citations for illegal parking since Monday's school opening. Meanwhile, the city officers have cited 425 students at nearby Fullerton College - which started classes last week - with $20 fines for parking infractions.

Cal State officials also rented parking spaces for students, faculty and staff to use for free at the Spectrum Club Fullerton and the Pond in Anaheim.

This week, the Orange County Transit Authority announced that effective Sept. 15 a University Pass would be available to allow CSUF students, faculty and staff with ID cards to ride free of charge, all day, every day.

Carol Zazuetta of Anaheim, visiting Bock on Wednesday, said her daughter and a friend wanted to ride the shuttle from Arrowhead Pond to the campus.

"But the lot closes at 5:30, and the girls have late classes."