# of parking spaces

Our Condo Complex (as well as others) has room for 1 car in the garage and 1 car in the driveway for each Unit. We have 80 Units, most with 2 bedrooms, a handful with 3 bedrooms. The developer says in the bylaws that up to 6 people can live in a Unit. The bylaws say adults and children can live in them. Our Condo Complex has very limited parking. With 80 Units, there is only one side street for parking extra cars, and 5 spaces for guest parking. These were built 30 years ago, so some of the rules were different. My question is, is it the norm for the developer to make only have 2 spaces for each Unit (with limited street parking) but allow up to 6 people to live in one Unit? What was the developer thinking if more than 2 people in a Unit get a car?

If the developer is no longer in control, then the owner's can change the rules. It's up to the owner's to take responsibility now and make changes. It's all in your documents on how to do it.

It's very common for condo complexes to have inadequate parking, and it's common for people to have several vehicles and use their one-car garages for storage space instead of parking. Enforcing parking restrictions can be difficult, time-consuming, and often unsuccessful. In my mind, it's questionable whether the benefits of enforcement justify the costs in time, money, aggravation, and ill will generated. But we do it because it's our job.

What we did:
* Amended our original, poorly thought out parking restriction to something that was reasonably enforceable. We publicize the restriction often (newsletters, etc.).
* We put up signage (No Street Parking, etc.).
* We're a tow-away zone, we let people know that, and we have violator's vehicles towed. This is easier said than done since you have to give reasonable notice and notify the police so that they know the vehicle wasn't stolen.
* Offenses that don't warrant towing get the usual letters, fines, etc. We make sure to get photos with date and time stamps on them so that we have proof. And then we deal with the wailing and gnashing of teeth that results. (I agree with RoyalP's comment, and I keep that in mind when we hear the laments.)

I still don't understand the logic behind 2 parking spaces (driveway and garage) yet the bylaws say up to 6 people can sleep in one Unit. We do have several Units with 3 bedrooms (but still 2 parking spaces). We have 70 Condo Units in our Complex. If just 10 -20 of those Units have 3 people in each Unit that have a car, our main street would be full to capacity of cars. Any other surrounding area outside our Complex has a parking ordinance for no parking.

I'm in a similar situation -- two BRs in my condo, so I can have up to four adults living in it, but only two parking spaces (garage and driveway). That's just the way it works and I knew it going in. Around here it is increasingly common for new multifamily construction to have only one or two dedicated parking spaces regardless of the size of the units, and some places in the urban core have no dedicated parking at all.

How about this, is there available land in your condo community to build a garage for the needed spaces? see if your brethren owners want to pony up the $$$ in a special assessment to build a suitable parking structure.