What to do with right-of-way area between my sidewalk and street? (house, landscaping)

[jss5724]

Hey everybody. I have a house on State near LSU and the right-of-way in front of my house just happens to be wide enough and long enough to park a car or two in. Problem is, I can't see a thing when coming out of the driveway because there are cars right up to the edge of the driveway. It isn't really on-street parking like in Spanish town or downtown, many people have green grass growing right up to the street. My wife and I are certain we will be hit due to the lack of visibility provided by the close-parkers, and sometime they come home wasted and leave their car half in the drive. People haul ass down our street all of the time, many of them leaving bars or heading to bars, so you can see how backing into the street on blind faith can be a problem.

What are the laws on planting and maintaining the R.O.W. in front of your house? We thought about putting a row of landscape timbers a couple feet off of the road and planting some evergreens plants or some low-growing box hedges. Please let me know if this is legal, I cannot find an answer anywhere! It might save my life one day!

[Rosinante]

Unless they've changed the laws recently, you are not supposed to plant anything in the ROW. Of course everybody does, so unless you think your neighbors would complain to the cops, I'd say go for it.

[darylwi]

Yeah, I don't think it's legal to plant in the ROW. Even if noone messes with you on State Street, when DPW comes around, they'll take note. The major election years are the worst because they're looking for inappropriate signage (campaign signs). They will make the rounds and take note of everything, light poles, the ROWs... You may or may not receive notice. They might cite your landscaping in the ROW. Or they might just pull it up themselves, who knows. Depends on their mood I guess.
Do you work at LSU or are still a student? Otherwise, have you thought about moving further away from campus to an area that isn't so congested, tight-spaced, and party prone? I know for students and professors at LSU, you can't be the convenience of the location.

[jss5724]

I have thought about moving away from the area but we are moving to Austin in 1.5 years and I don't want to have to move again. We've done a lot of renovation to this house and have made it a VERY comfortable home. We also love the access to the lakes, campus, restaurants, bars, and shops in the area. There aren't too many areas in town where you can walk to a commercial district like on State. The noise, trash, and trend-varying youth are not even the biggest problem, it's the jerks that carelessly park half in the street, half in the right-of-way, with the front of the car hanging over my driveway.

I tend to think that in this area, the "City" would sure have a lot of nerve to pull up my pretty plants while the known slumlords of the neighborhood get away with letting these historic homes decay and be laced with beer cans and fast food bags.