Tonight the city council will be discussing front yard parking. A proposed restriction would ban residents from parking on their lawns in front of their homes.
Residents would still be able to have 2 spaces off of their driveway as long as it was less than 40% of their available lawn. Thomas Crowder is a strong advocate of these measures- he feels that it is a quality of life issue. The idea fits into the broken window theory and would be seen to help clean up neighborhoods, particularly those with several renters to one residence. The issue is a long standing one for Councilor Crowder, who at one point advocated limits on the number of renters that could occupy a single residence.
In this election year the council candidates look for issues that separate them from their challengers. Crowder’s district D has both long-time home owners and many rental residences, but many renters are students who do not participate in the local elections process.
In Brief
- Prohibit parking on front lawns where parking is limited to paved or gravel surfaces with permanent discernable edges in order to eliminate erosion and silt from washing into our streets and stormwater systems.
- Limits parking in front yards to the linear depth of the front yard area multiplied by twelve (12) feet [plus three hundred and thirty (330) square feet - if needed ] or forty (40) per cent of the front yard area, whichever is less. The exceptions would be where very small front yards exist like cul-de-sacs; no more than 40% of the front yard can be paved and used for parking in such cases.
- Limits impervious surfaces for parking in many cases to 40% of the front yards.
- Requires landscaping where circular drives are installed, and/or parking pads (limited to 330 square feet) allow parking more than 90 degrees perpendicular to the public right of way in order to mitigate the visual impacts of cars and shield headlights from intruding onto adjacent properties.
- Requires a permit for all future driveways and parking pads.
The hearing will be held at 6:30 in the Avery C Upchurch building.
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