HOA Street Parking

This subject was spammed but it seems to be of intererst so I am restarting it here:

While I am not totally sure on this, one way it often works is a declarant plans a development/association and the streets might well have parking restrictions on them. Typically no overnight parking.

Also the declarant will lay out/plan the streets according to local government restrictions with the full intention that once the streets are done and inspected by local whatever government, the streets will be "annexed" into the local government along with any parking restrictions.

Also quite typical for many local governments to say that new developments must plan on resident off street parking (lots, driveway, etc.) as there will be no overnight parking allowed on the new streets even if the developer wanted to allow such.

In my present HOA (and one before), the streets are public but no overnight parking is allowed and the HOA can enforce such a ban via fines. I cannot tell you how this legally works, but I can assure you it does.

Hope this helps.

In my HOA we ran into an issue when we changed from having one HOA controlled water meter to separate water meters. In order for the utilities to come in and do that our streets had to become public and turned over to the city. It was a PUBLIC utility and had to have public access. Our streets weren't exactly up to city code as were were originally in the county. So our streets are very narrow and only allows really for one side of the street parking. If anyone parks on both sides they risk a mirror taken off or car damage.

We were okay with becoming public street owned and made the changes in our CC&R's/by-laws to reflect the change. Took over 2 years and almost 3K in funds. We even let the city come in and put in their own traffic control and street signs. All was good in the world except...If an emergency vehicle, bus, or garbage vehicle entered they could get stuck. We had an ambulance get stuck with a person having a heart attack. He died. Don't think it was why he died but did not help the situation.

It became apparent we had to restrict parking to one side of the street and in garages/driveways per the old HOA rules. The problem was that the HOA no longer owned the streets nor had the restrictions to apply anymore. The city code book stated that the city would have to install "No parking" signs every 20 or so feet to enforce the no parking restriction. This would look extremely tacky and we did not allow signs in the HOA other than for sale/rent. Could you just imagine how bad rows of signs would look on a small street with small yards?

I contacted the city to explain the situation. The amount of signs and where to put them was a huge debate. I had to go with our district representative and fire chief around the neighborhood to discuss the issue. It was decided that the side of the street with the fire hydrants would be the "No parking zones". Which made the most sense. I then had to contact the City's code department and have them make up a code that would allow us to paint the curbs red for no parking and blue for handicap parking. This way no signs but people could clearly see they could not park on that side. Finally, had to get an ordinance with the city council to create and enforce the rule of no parking on the right side of the street.

You can see that just because the HOA does not have restrictions on city owned streets, does not mean they can't work with the city to get them. Just can't do with with your HOA. The HOA has to work with the city and have them make and enforce the rules if they are reasonable and legal. Overnight parking may be one of them or no clunkers...However, the site of an RV or Industrial vehicle may not be enforceable to the city ordinance. So you have to pick your battles and realize which ones may be enforceable to the entire public not just your little area.

Our HOA worked with the City to pass an ordinance restricting parking to one-side of the street in our community for the same reason--the streets were narrow. Some residents were angry about it, but it seems to have blown over.