more parking issues

We have 30 garage spaces and 43 units. Thirteen units have no assigned parking apace. My unit is one that does not have an assigned space in the garage. We share an outside parking lot with the our neighbor a care center. We had a survey done a couple of years ago so we do know where our property lines are.

To the West of our buildings are three rows of parking spaces for vehicles. A new owner and a board member want to designate 13 spaces for the 13 units that do not have a garage space assigned to the unit.
At first I thought this was a good idea. But one winter day, I almost fell trying to get to my car because it was parked in the last row and there is an incline in the parking lot. Some of our property is down this incline.

Our lawyer has contacted someone at the church office of the care center (out of state) to determine what the original agreement regarding the use of the parking lot but to date have not heard from the church office. The information filed at our courthouse is unreadable.

Our treasurer mentioned cutting away at some of our hilly lawn, building a retaining wall and adding more parking spaces. (too expensive)
I thought of building a parking garage (much more expensive)
Then I thought of getting cones such as those used in road construction and giving them to anyone who has to park outside so that the person could place a cone with his/her unit number on it in the spot when they leave if they want to reserve it to park in later. We would of course have our spaces marked and we would tell people to only do this on our property. At this point I don't know if this is a bad idea, a good idea, or just something for a good laugh.
The Care Center is planning on working with us on re-surfacing the parking lot this year, so nothing will be done to reserve spaces until after the resurfacing is completed.

If you are going to do that, then it would be better to simply assign spaces.
Otherwise you will have the issues of so and so is hogging the only level spot in the parking lot.

An update: Our shared parking lot is being resurfaced. The Care Center is paying 75% of the cost since they have many heavy delivery trucks coming and going and their employees use the lot much more than our owners/residents use it.

After the resurfacing is complete we are planning on assigning spaces nearest the building to units who do not have a garage space. The administrator of the Care Center has agreed to let us do this even though some of these parking spaces are on the Care Center's property. The incline to get to some of the spaces on our property is difficult for us older people to manage especially in the winter. We have prepared an agreement which the administrator of the Care Center agrees to and has been approved by our lawyer. We just need to get it signed and dated.

The down side of this is the cost of posting reserved signs. We have already spend $12,000 for two new are conditioners for the second floor and our bill for resurfacing the parking lot is a little over $37.000 which will take our reserve down to about $100.000. If money had been continuously put in reserve before I moved here in 2008 this may not be a problem. But at this time I hesitate to spend much more money and it appears that posting the signs may cost about $6,000.00 not counting the cost of painting. At our next monthly meeting, I will ask other members of the Board how they think we should handle.

For those who don't already know I live in an apartment style condominium.

Tim I was also thinking of shopping around for signs. However, there will be no curb as there are two other rows of parking spaces just behind the spaces we will be usings.

You may only need very few signs, Bonnie. Our condo parking garage has space numbers painted on the space floor. Perhaps you can do that once it's determined who gets what space.

You may only need very few signs, Bonnie. Our condo parking garage has space numbers painted on the space floor. Perhaps you can do that once it's determined who gets what space.

Oh, I understand yours are outside. But, once resurfaced, maybe they could have numbers stenciled on them, Bonnie.

I thought maybe you were from a state that did not have snow when I read your suggestion. Then I checked to see your state. Yes, painting on the cement (We are not doing asphalt) would be less expensive, (and I did think of it) but at times in the winter could not be seen.

In fact the cement being used according to the contractor will have less harm from the materials used in the winter to help clear the lot of ice and snow. As my late husband used to say frequently "Time will tell."

Bonnie,

Why would you permit it to snow on your parade ?