Common area parking

I have a question. We own a townhouse. In our community we had 14 common area parking spaces and 5 visitor parking spaces. Many of the homeowners have multiple vehicles and use some of the common area parking spaces. There are usually 4 or five spaces still open at all times and there are not too many visitors that fill up the visitor parking spaces. The board decided to covert all common area parking spaces to visitor spaces only. This puts a burden on many of the homeowners in our community. We know that the president and vice president of the HOA were the ones behind this because of personal reasons. My question is: Is this an example of abuse of powers and what can we do to get our parking spaces back? I went to the HOA meeting and was quickly shut down. The Vice President said that there were too many people not "following the rules." I thought that the HOA was there for the homeowners, not the visitors.

No, it is not an abuse of power. What was an abuse of power were the owners that monopolized the visitor parking with their overflow of vehicles.

If each unit is given 2 parking spaces per unit and they have 3 cars, sounds like someone needs to consolidate or put 1 vehicle in storage.

I agree with Kerry re: reading your CC&Rs, paying special attention to any parking restriction and any restriction that deals with the use of common elements. In my community, the parking restriction says no parking of inoperable vehicles and no parking on the streets, among other things. Elsewhere there is language prohibiting storage of personal belongings on the common elements, so no one may permanently park an extra vehicle on the parking pads.

Also look for language in the CC&Rs giving the Board the right to create rules and regulations governing use of the common elements. Parking is often in short supply in condo or townhome communities, so it's the Board's job to make rules to avoid such things as visitors parking on lawns or otherwise blocking others' access to their homes. In addition, you'll see people using their garages for storage and parking outside. This is, of course, their choice - but it doesn't necessarily entitle them to use the common elements because they now have no room for all of their vehicles.

Tim, you need to watch Parking Wars on A&E.

I have.
Nice show.
Not relevant to the discussion.