Once More, Street Parking Issues

Our streets are public. Our Covenants say no overnight, on street parking.

We had an owner who was parking on the street overnight. He was sent a polite warning letter from our MC and suggested he stop this practice and park on the parking pad not 50 feet from his home.

The owner decided to pursue the issue with the local Police Department. The PD called our MC and requested a copy of the section of our Covenants dealing with this. Small world at times, but our MC knows the police officer. The police officer told him they were getting more and more complaints from owners concerning HOA parking restrictions and they try to avoid them. The police officer called the MC back and on the QT, told him that he called the complainer and basically told him that as he had agreed to the Covenants, that the Covenants were binding.

The owner has been parking his car on the parking pad.

One of the factors driving the growth of HOA's is the desire for municipalities to push costs to developers, and subsequently the HOA's rather than having them funded by the ezisiting city residents.

For example, in our city new developments are required to establish HOA's that will have responsibility for street lights, storm water control, community parks, etc. Furthermore, even though the streets are "public" and maintained by the city, they encourage HOA's to perform any parking regulation short of towing of vehicles. The police would prefer that the HOA have the authority within their covenants to restrict parking, and even tell us that if the restrictions are not documented in the covenants, to use other powers that are in the covenants to achieve the same results. After reviewing our covenants, the police felt we had several alternatives to justify regulation of parking within our community.

As a sample of his, our section within the CC&R's addressing parking ends with the following statement:

"The purpose of this Section is to help maintain the neat and attractive appearance of the Development by requiring the streets of the Development to remain cleared, and for larger vehicles and equipment to be either hidden from view or eliminated altogether if intended to be stored on more than a temporary basis. In effectuating the purpose of this Section, the ACC may adopt guidelines, rules and regulations which shall give greater substance to its provisions, as for example, by defining what shall be considered temporary or permanent in the case of each subsection above."

In the end, we don't prevent people from parking on the streets as long as it is done legally (facing the right direction, not blocking driveways or obstructing sidewalks and obeying the single-side rules for each street). Not doing so will result in the homeowner being fined, but they can appeal to the Board if the violating vehicle did not belong to them or a visitor.