Howdy!
The board of alderman will be hearing testimony on a touchy subject coming up this Monday. The matter at hand is weather or not people should be able to park their vehicles on the non-paved portions of their own property. In other words, Should citizens be able to park their cars in their yards? There are a lot of angles to this argument and I’d really like to get your input.
This is such a touchy subject that it made the paper this week:
http://www.ccheadliner.com/articles/2009/05/01/news/doc49f77f65509f9731027800.txt
http://www.ccheadliner.com/articles/2009/05/01/opinion/doc49f732cb65189303225684.txt
The Ordinance:
Section 355.130: Parking prohibited by certain types of vehicles in residential areas
A. This Section will use definitions that are contained in Section 301.010, RSMo., and as those definitions may be changed from time to time.
B. It shall be unlawful for any person to park or store any motor vehicle or trailer of any type without current license plates or any inoperable vehicle on any street, highway, private road or driveway in any area zoned "residential" within the corporate limits of the City of Ozark as established by the Official Zoning Map except that such motor vehicle or trailer may be parked or stored in a completely enclosed building or garage.
C. All vehicles permitted to be parked in residential areas shall be parked on a paved surface. (Ord. No. 06-016 §2, 2-20-06; Ord. No. 08-028 §1, 7-21-08)
My Thoughts:
I can easily see both sides of this argument. The problem lies in that either way you go, you run the chance of stepping on someone’s property rights. If you allow people to park their cars in their yard, it may decrease the property values of the neighboring properties. As I see it, my rights end where yours begin. However, I do not believe that parking a vehicle in your yard, whether it is legally tagged or not, will diminish property values in and of itself. If that vehicle is on blocks and is leaking oil and rusting…that is a different story. On the other hand, shouldn’t you be able to park whatever you want on your own property?
Personally, I don’t like the way the ordinance reads. At my house, we have 4 vehicles. One of which is a huge 1983 suburban that we rarely drive. Like a lot of folks, our garage is a storage unit for everything other than our cars. Luckily, we have a street that is wide enough to park on so we can park a vehicle in front of the house. There have been times where we have needed to make space in the driveway and have parked our suburban in the back yard or at the side of the house for days at a time. If our road wasn’t wide enough to park on, that suburban would stay parked in the yard all the time. Frankly, it’s my yard and I should be able to park in it if I want to, and it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if my neighbors did the same thing.
Regardless of how I feel about the ordinance, it exists. And while the law exists, it should be applied equally.
As for my opinion about this specific case, I will hold my judgment until I am able to hear all sides on Monday.
Let me know what you think about the way the current ordinance is written. Do you think it should be revised and how? What is your common sense approach that would allow people to park in the yard when they need to, but would maintain the beauty of our city?
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