Neighborhood Parking issues

[aprilgail]

No one can park in their garages anymore because it seems everyone uses the garage to store their mountains of crap. I about pass out when some of my neighbors have their garage doors open and all you can see is stacks and stacks of boxes of crap.

Most houses in my areas have converted their garage into either a bedroom or an expanded living room. Mine is my daughters bedroom. My neighbor next door keeps his snowblower, tools and bikes in his so no room for a car in there with that in there.

 

[mamacatnv]

Do you have a short driveway that your "guests" can't park in your driveway?

Doubling up in driveway would cover sidewalk which is a no-no

I am always surprised by these threads. Since I've only lived in large cities I never got the memo that it's rude to park in front of someone else's house. Here if a car fits in a spot it's yours.
Tell the neighbor to pound sand. Short of handicapped or elderly it's nobodies business where you or your guests park.

This has always been my thought process as well, I've lived in suburbs all my life and the street is just that, the street meaning public and up for grabs

 

[piccolopat]

Lol, but they have to shovel out if they need or want to go out. It isn't a "right" to the spot on a public street. Entitled litterers, classy, lol. What do they do when there isn't snow?

Did you ever live in one of these communities? If you spend an hour clearing the spot where you had parked your car, you really don't want your neighbor's kid parking there as soon as you leave just because they are too lazy to clear the spot in front of their house. It's not an issue of entitlement but really one of being respectful of your neighbors. I'm glad I left that kind of community years ago and don't have to deal with the nonsense anymore.

 

[piccolopat]

Part of the problem is that zoning allows houses to be built with inadequate off-street parking based on today's lifestyles and developers are building undersized garages. We're starting to look at places to retire and so many of the developments have garages that really can't fit the 2 or 3 cars they claim. We want room to pull our cars into the garage and open the doors to get out without banging into something. Some houses have a 3 car garage this is no bigger than our present 2 car garage. Then add in the shorter driveways or the houses where the garage is at a right angle to the driveway making it impossible to use both.

Many years ago when we lived in NYC, an older home was torn down and 8 townhouses were built. The road was barely one car wide and the driveways were so short they would not fit even something like a Camry. When the rest of the neighborhood has 40' wide lots and single car driveways, that means few on street parking spots. The city allowed the developer to build these townhomes and those cars had no place to go but into the neighborhood. A lot of people were very unhappy with this.

 

[spinandmarty]

If it's a public street you can park where you want, can't park in front of a drive way of course, rude to park in front of a mailbox. I see people following the postman at least twice a year timing them to see how long it takes to do their deliverys. Town I live in, plus town I work in if you're house was built before mid 70's they deliver to door, after that mailbox on road... as for property in front of houses most of the towns I have lived in you don't technically own the property right to the road... where I live now the city owns the property between sidewalk and street, the town I work in city has 12 feet from curb if you have a 100 year old tree they can do whatever they want to with it... the way I found out about the 12 foot rule was our employer went with a no smoking policy on property, one of coworkers was written up for smoking by street he checked with village ordinances, found out company had no jurisdiction with in 12 feet of road, my neighbor parks his work truck in front of my house all the time I have no problem with it

 

[scrapquitler]

I'm curious what y'all think.
My next door neighbor is a single lady who pretty much waves or says hi over the fence. We have lived next door for 4 years and that is about it for the conversations.

Sunday morning at 9:30 am our doorbell rings, its our next door neighbor and she is mad! She starts yelling at us that we/"our guests" (members of our household) are parked in front of her house and she wants HER guests to park in front of her house. She rants and rants about how we have no right, she has hesitated to say anything but has had enough. I let her rant for a few minutes and then I just shut my door. Kind of like hanging up the phone on someone I just closed the door on her. She was very obviously worked up and not in the mood to have a conversation.

Points:

We live on a public street

There is plenty of parking, its not like people have to hunt for a space.

There are no HOA rules regarding parking other than one cannot leave abandoned cars or block driveways.

We cannot park in front of our house because we have a stop sign on our corner and we have to stay 30 feet away from the stop sign so we street park on one side of our driveway but not the other.

The area in question is 1/3 in front of our side yard and 2/3's in front of her house, 3-4 cars car reasonably park in the area. Neighbors boyfriend has a huge truck and if he is out front then only 3 will fit. We never take up the entire area. Neighbors boyfriend is around almost every evening. Neighbor has a double driveway but only puts her truck in the driveway, her boyfriend tends to park on the street. I assume because his truck is so big.

When my DS is home we tend to take up two spots on the street. This is what has her bent out of shape.
She was yelling at us that "our guests" should not park there as the street space in front of her house is for HER "guests".

Technically, DS lives with us, his car is registered to our address but he tends to be around on the weekends and then not every weekend as he is usually at his girlfriends. So he is not a "guest" he lives at our home.

I was flabbergasted and taken completely by surprise. We did notice the night before that the neighbors boyfriends big truck was so close to Son's girlfriends car that she could not get out unless Son moved his car. We thought it kind of odd but since no one was going anywhere that evening we let it go.

I really don't want to make an enemy out of my neighbor but I am not parking around the corner on the very busy street that people zip up and down on if I don't have too. Why should I when there is perfectly good, safer parking on my own street? Why does it matter that it is in front of her house? Reminder, there are no "rules", it is first come first serve.

I guess this is some sort of courtesy issue although the way she lit into us so early in the morning does not do much to pull on my courtesy heart strings.

Sooooo........What do y'all think?

I think I'd tell her to go ahead and call the police so that they can explain to her that street parking is first come first serve, the person who owns the lawn next to the curb does not have any implied preference to that parking spot.

 

[tvguy]

Part of the problem is that zoning allows houses to be built with inadequate off-street parking based on today's lifestyles and developers are building undersized garages. We're starting to look at places to retire and so many of the developments have garages that really can't fit the 2 or 3 cars they claim. We want room to pull our cars into the garage and open the doors to get out without banging into something. Some houses have a 3 car garage this is no bigger than our present 2 car garage. Then add in the shorter driveways or the houses where the garage is at a right angle to the driveway making it impossible to use both.

Many years ago when we lived in NYC, an older home was torn down and 8 townhouses were built. The road was barely one car wide and the driveways were so short they would not fit even something like a Camry. When the rest of the neighborhood has 40' wide lots and single car driveways, that means few on street parking spots. The city allowed the developer to build these townhomes and those cars had no place to go but into the neighborhood. A lot of people were very unhappy with this.

In some areas around here zoning requires the s

If it's a public street you can park where you want, can't park in front of a drive way of course, rude to park in front of a mailbox. I see people following the postman at least twice a year timing them to see how long it takes to do their deliverys. Town I live in, plus town I work in if you're house was built before mid 70's they deliver to door, after that mailbox on road...

I think where the mailbox is also is a factor of local rules. My parents first house, built in 1950, had the mailbox on the street because it was a rural area. Their second house, in the suburbs was built in 1960 and by then the mailbox everywhere had to be on the street. I'm thinking the rules here change in the late 1950's. Houses built after that point all have the mailbox on the street.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Most houses in my areas have converted their garage into either a bedroom or an expanded living room. Mine is my daughters bedroom. My neighbor next door keeps his snowblower, tools and bikes in his so no room for a car in there with that in there.

I've seen a lot of houses here too where people do that. No way in hello I am going to scrape snow & ice off my car all winter so that all that stuff can sit comfortably warm inside the garage. That is what a storage shed in the backyard is for. Dh built ours as large as our town allows. That's where all that crap goes: lawnmower, snowblower, edger, 3 leafblowers, weedwacker, wheelbarrow, go kart, etc.
My dad built one when I was a kid and has since put in addition on it to fit 2 ride-on lawn mowers (don't ask). So the addition section is a "drive-thru" lol.

We have no basement but have learned how to part with things. If 4 seasons have passed and I haven't touched it, bye-bye. Unless it's something sentimental like special baby clothes or my boxed wedding gown, both in the attic, it has to go.
Our garage looks like 2 cars from the street but really more like 1.5 with lots of shelving down each side and a lockable, walk-in storage room in the back. We comfortably fit 2 vehicles in the driveway, but since ds20 works PT and not the same schedule as us, I get the garage, dh parks behind me but not so close that I can't easily back out around him, then ds20 parks in the street. It is close to the property line with our neighbors but they park in their own driveway and don't care. If they do, they haven't said anything.
Our other neighbor had his teenage/young adult grandson living with him for a while and he would park just at the opposite edge of our property line which never bothered me except that he never bothered to pull his car in the driveway when it snowed. The plows just go around parked cars but then it never gets properly cleared in that area which I find slightly annoying. Not enough for a confrontation though.

I am very particular that ds not leave his car in the street when plows will be coming or also the 2 fall leaf pick up days. Signs are posted on telephone poles what week our street will have leaf pick up but we don't know which day exactly. Still I move ds's car every morning into dh's empty spot before I go to work in case they come that day.

Not many people park in the street so it's not an issue here.

In our town the homes that have larger lots, like my parents 1 acre, they deliver mail by truck. Our lots are smaller so our carrier walks. I do recall years ago my dad griping when the neighbor's teens across the street would park in front of my parent's house instead of their own and the mailman would not deliver their mail. Those kids are probably 40 now so I guess it just never ends....

I work in Philly and lots of coworkers from South Philly where parking is just ridiculous. Even in good weather people have to drive for blocks to find parking. I can't imagine grocery shopping like this. They wonder how I can stand to pay our crazy high NJ property taxes til I point out that we have good schools and no parking problems. I can't even remember the last time I had to parallel park. lol. Maybe 8-10 yrs ago???.
A lot of coworkers just leave their cars buried in the snow until spring because they know they'll never find another parking spot if they give theirs up.