Parking ordinances

[Bobbie Mayer]

One way a city or organization can handle things like this is to require complaints from more than one person (household) before any action is taken. So your neighbor may say your dog is barking or your trailer is ugly, but if two other neighbors don't agree, you're fine. I've seen dog complaints handled that way- one neighbor calls and complains about every dog in the area, but the animal control won't do anything without complaints from at least one or two other people.

To send someone cruising around looking for violations where there have been no complaints is a waste of money.

We have a neighborhood issue right now over an auto-repair station that is very close to my home. It's in the middle of a residential area because it was until recently the oldest operating service station in the country, and now it is an historic landmark. The current owner cannot sell gas (tank issues) but runs a repair shop. He seems to be honest, he appears to do good work, and his employees are polite and conscientious. But two neighbors (out of many) complain about noise and finished cars being parked on the street. So those two neighbors may succeed in shutting him down and putting six people out of work, not to mention leaving the building to decay and become a drug-dealing landmark again.

On the other hand, those two are retired and home all day on work days... so maybe it does bother them more. Whereas I love the convenience of being able to get my oil changed without taking my car anywhere.

Bobbie

[Herb Sutton]

Most parking regulations lump RVs, boats and commercial trucks together. Enforcement does not try to distinguish between the good, the bad and the ugly. Your trailer goes into the same category as a Port-A-John truck. In some towns they only act on citizen complaints. Some towns are totally "chicken" about it. Boca Raton FL is the very worst I ever encountered.

In one town I had to put my clean, shiny sailboat in the garage and leave the ugly rusty old station wagon out for everyone to look at.

I had a friend some years ago that had a garage with front and back doors. A standard 7' high door will not be high enough for a trailer.

Real estate listings in some places will note that a property has access for RV storage. These are usually corner properties.

[Raya]

I had a friend some years ago that had a garage with front and back doors. A standard 7' high door will not be high enough for a trailer.

Some trailers will fit into a 7' high door, so it's worth checking. Compact family trailers would, as would many Boler 13s and other older Boler clones. Each Boler/clone would have to be evaluated individually.

Granted I don't think a Burro, which the OP has, would fit under a 7' high door without going to bare rims, or creeper wheels.

Raya

[Weinel, Alan]

I am on BOTH sides... I think the laws are generally a good thing, and I am a scofflaw. The ordinance in our town is that RV's cannot be visible from the street. SO... putting a trailer behind a 6' fence is STILL out of compliance. It is a local muni ordinance, not an HOA issue. We also have the "no trash cans visible" (except on collection day) - ALSO widely ignored. As has been reported elsewhere, the City ONLY responds to citizen complaints. No complaint, no citation. I don't think they have any "enforcers" driving around LOOKING for violations.
Actually, in retrospect, that seems the right solution... the rule **IS** there, and can be enforced where enforcement is NEEDED. If someone has a complete junker... Complain! Besides, our little eggs are so much LESS of a visual thing than a ginormous 40' Class A Motorhome. I figger if it gets to be a REAL problem, I will adjust if/when that happens. Till then, the White House sits in the driveway. THEN **I** will badger Cith Hall with complaints of violators, and pester the Council to do **SOMETHING**.

[Bigfoot Mike]

I think pretty much all sides have been discussed.

It is so funny how life works. I was a Scout Master and had a chance to get a Black Angus cow hide. Now as it happened, I had bought 2.5 acres way out in the county and had built a large two story log home. We camped in a large 22ft Tipi. So having a large ‘faux’ buffalo hide seem perfect for the tipi. We decided to learn to tan the hide and use it for camping.

We skinned the cow, stretched the hide on 30’ poles and scraped all the fat off. (boy that was a lot of work.) We leaned the hide up against the back of our log home and proceeded to keep working on it. We kinda thought it looked cool having such a rustic looking log home tanning our ‘faux buffalo’.

Well a neighbor 10 acres away complained told us we couldn’t do that. I was dumbfounded. Turned out there was no county ordinance. The neighbor was a local high school teacher and gave our son a hard time at the school. We had to go down there and explain to the administration what the issue was and then she was reprimanded.

My point is, one persons fun and activity is hated by others as it doesn’t fit their World View. We have always lived where we could have as much freedom as possible. We do believe in taking pride in ownership and like a clean nice neighborhood.

We now live in an HOA and are having some heart burn over the rules. The rules want everyone to be in the same lockstep.

My strategy is to quietly make sure your right and then stand up for yourself. Don’t pick a fight you can’t win.

PS: I DO have a personal issue with a law that says you have to license a vehicle and then cannot park it on your property or a city street. Sorry.

[John Hussey]

My definition of "government":

"Government" is nothing but a loose collection of our friends and neighbors-our peers, really- telling US what They decide that WE must do for THEIR own good, whether we agree or not.