News
20 or so speak on ordinance for lawns
Arguments made for, against a parking ban
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Published: July 8, 2008
About 20 people lined up last night to tell the Winston-Salem City Council what they thought about a proposed ordinance to ban parking on front lawns.
Many residents who spoke in favor of the proposed parking ordinance said that vehicles parked on front lawns in their neighborhoods detract from the neighborhood and lower property values.
But others said that the city should not dictate what homeowners do on their own property.
If adopted, the proposed city regulations would stop people from parking their cars and trailers on front lawns.
Residents would be able to apply for a city permit to expand their driveways or install parking pads. The city would also issue permits so that people could park on their front lawns twice a year, for special events.
Those who continued to park on a front lawn without a permit would be fined $25 per vehicle. The ordinance did not specify whether the fines would accumulate over time, or whether they would be one-time fines.
"Clearly, there are opposing opinions" to the ordinance, said Council Member Wanda Merschel. "I just hope and encourage council members to keep this at the forefront."
Supporters of the parking restrictions showed pictures of four and five cars lined up on the yards in front of homes and a front yard covered in concrete, in effect serving as a large parking lot.
George Bryan, the president of the Winston-Salem Neighborhood Alliance, said he has seen the problem in neighborhoods throughout the city.
"Neighbors have been complaining about parking on the front lawn for years," he said. "This is not a new issue."
Opponents to the ordinance said they should be allowed to park where and when they want. They argued that extra parking is needed when family members come over to visit, when they unload their groceries or when they have to accommodate housemates' schedules.
Some argued that it would be too expensive to apply for a city permit to build a new driveway or parking pad.
"I should be able to use my property to park my car," said Thomas "Wayne" Davis, who lives on Randall Avenue. "I don't think it's correct to take away my rights as an owner."
The city has been accepting feedback from residents for months on its Web site. So far, 43 people have filed written responses.
City staff members have recommended that council members adopt the new ordinance. It is being sent back to the general government committee for more debate.
In other business, council members voted to set up an eight-member citizens committee to review the City-County Utility Commission. Among other things, the committee will review the utility commission's finances and determine if elected officials should serve on the commission.
The utility commission was set up in 1976 to administer sewer, water and solid waste service in Forsyth County. This is the first major review of the commission since its formation.
The committee is scheduled to start work later this month and deliver a final report in January.
The council also approved an ordinance that establishes guidelines for new residential development in neighborhoods surrounding downtown. It covers, for example, how far houses and multifamily buildings can sit back on their lots, the sizes of additions and garages, the placement of housing on narrow lots and the subdividing of property.
The ordinance is an attempt to make new development compatible with the designs of older neighborhoods.
■ Blair Goldstein can be reached at 727-7284 or at bgoldstein@wsjournal.com.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( ANDYEE ) on July 8, 2008 at 6:39 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Parking has always been a problem of sorts, now that the government has allowed our population to increase so dramatically( through immigration) there are now too many of us and not enough space.If you ban parking in someone's own yard you will create a much bigger problem than you have now..You created this problem, Mr. government, now you fix it, not the people!!!
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Posted by ( Stormie ) on July 8, 2008 at 7:02 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I lived in a neighborhood once where a lot of the houses were rented by college students. Anywhere from 4 to 7 cars were parked on the front lawn even though 2 of the houses had a long concrete driveway. Usually only one car would be parked on the driveway when 4 could easily have parked on it. Until I took action via having 3 people's car towed off for parking on my front lawn and not asking my permission which I would not have granted in the first place, the problem did not go away. None of those students were illegal immigrants.
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Posted by ( ANDYEE ) on July 8, 2008 at 7:19 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Stormie I would have done the same thing had they parked in my yard without permission.At the same time, I am sure that you can see that we are becoming overcrowded at a much faster pace than a normal birth rate would indicate. A B C more and more people on the same amount of space. What do you suggest that we do about it? Just keep towing cars??
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Posted by ( JohnG ) on July 8, 2008 at 8:15 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
It is your property but you cant park on it? It is your property but you have to get government approval to put in a driveway? Apparently it isnt really your property. You just pay the bank lots of rent in the form of interest and the city lots of rent in the form of tax.
It bothers me how most everyone is really a totalitarian. If something offends their eye they want to fine or put people in jail for it. Live and let live.
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Posted by ( MrGreen ) on July 8, 2008 at 8:21 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Cars cars cars everywhere!
You want to lower the value of your house and neighborhood quick? Encourage your neighbors or their renters to park on the front yard.
This is a "common sense" ordinance.
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Posted by ( benzilla ) on July 8, 2008 at 9:05 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
"It is your property but you cant park on it?"
I know--that's crazy, isn't it? It's almost as if what you do on YOUR property has some effect on OTHER people's property... you know, like we're living in some sort of "community" or something!
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Posted by ( lewissalem ) on July 8, 2008 at 9:34 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
If you want to park in your front yard, move to the country.
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Posted by ( localboy ) on July 8, 2008 at 10:58 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I would like to touch on the issue regarding students parking on lawns. I am a Wake student who lives on Polo Rd. I try to be conscientious about respecting my neighbors and their property. However, four of us live in our house, each with a car, and our driveway is not designed to hold four cars at once in a way that everyone can get in and out without having an incredibly inconvenient scramble for roommates' keys while trying to get to class on time. We have made two spots in the yard, not out of convenience, but out of necessity. We understand it is not attractive and detracts from property value, but we don't have much of a choice. We are not the culprits in this situation; if anyone, it is our landlord who should be revamping the driveway in order to provide us each with a space. Further, I apologize if students have parked on your yard rather than their own, but I think they would kindly move their cars if asked. Is towing necessary to get your point across?
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Posted by ( Johnny_W ) on July 8, 2008 at 11:04 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Crime is on the rise, schools full of problems, economy having problems and yet people parking on their own lawns gets more comments than any other story.
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Posted by ( JohnG ) on July 8, 2008 at 11:39 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Someone else parking on their lawn does not affect your property. It might affect your property's perceived value. But so do many other factors. If you want to control what your neighbors do you can move to a community with restrictive covenants.
Homeowners love talking about how their home is an 'investment.' Well, investments come with risk.
The interesting result from this might be more dangerous streets. The ordinance might keep cars off of lawns. This might put those cars into narrow streets and result in more and possibly deadly accidents.
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Posted by ( Stormie ) on July 8, 2008 at 12:06 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
The people who parked on my lawn had their cars towed because when I asked them to please stop using my front yard to park their cars on they continued to do so anyway. I took pride in my home and my yard. To kill my grass just because they want to park their cars there is just plain wrong. No Andyee I don't think we can solve this problem by towing their cars all the time even though they didn't park there after I had them towed. I agree with localboy regarding the owner of the property to pay to have a suitable parking space put there if they plan to rent such house to multiple people. But I was the owner of my home and I was not renting it out to those people. If some of you see nothing wrong with people parking on a neighbor's front lawn then why not put an ad in the newspaper that anyone who wants to is more than welcome to park on yours.
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Posted by ( cateski ) on July 8, 2008 at 12:32 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
I live in a Lewisville subdivision and we are ticketed if we DON'T park in our yard (when the drive is unavailable)! This looks very tacky to have cars parked in our yards! Not to mention the grass it kills.
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Posted by ( benzilla ) on July 8, 2008 at 1:33 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
"The interesting result from this might be more dangerous streets... This might put those cars into narrow streets and result in more and possibly deadly accidents."
Actually, the opposite is the case. Cars parked on the street tend to slow traffic flow-through and thus reduce accidents. This is why, when the transportation department looks into potential traffic calming in residential neighborhoods, one of the things the look into is whether residents are utilizing on-street parking.
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Posted by ( Kittyotis ) on July 8, 2008 at 2:57 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
I am strongly in favor of a city ordinance that would keep people from parking on the lawns. It should apply to EVERY house in the city. I have a neighbor (on Stockton St.) who keeps between four and five cars parked on his lawn and there hasn't been a blade of grass there for three years. It is a muddy mess and has severely brought down the home values of all the other residents in the neighborhood. The house is occupied by about six grown men, one woman and three small children. And it's a two bedroom/one bath house. The thing that would fix the "cars on the lawn" problem (because you can't teach common sense or respect to some people) would be to have an ordinance that restricts single-family residences from being occupied by groups of people that are not "single families". But it would be pointless to pass the ordinance if it's not actually enforced.
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