Street Parking in SFH Neighborhoods (Vienna: homes, live in, legal)

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by Flamingo13

Well, my neighbor (who rents, lives w/girfriend and brother there) - has: dump truck, two BIG diesel pickup trucks (just recently removed the attached snow plows), 3 BMW's, a huge work-type landscaping open trailer and one enclosed one!!! Since the trailers take up the entire driveway, ALL the vehicles park if front of my house as well as all up and down the street (and registered in MD after 2+ yrs. to boot) sigh........

Since the MD registration bothers you it could be reported.

[airjay75]

Also worth mentioning for Flamingo13 that there are pretty strict rules (at least in Fairfax County - I seem to recall she's in Alexandria City - they probably have some similar rules) on the parking of commercial vehicles and trailers as well as parking too close to someone's driveway. A few links here for Fairfax County:

Summary of Section 82-5-7 of the Fairfax County Code*- Fairfax County, Virginia
Parking Restrictions and Related Issues*- Fairfax County, Virginia

One thing I have always found interesting is that a commercial vehicle is defined by its size - certain large pickup trucks, regardless of whether they're used for commercial purposes, are considered per se commercial vehicles because of their size. Also, if you're in a community parking district, the parking of all trailers (on the street) is illegal other than for temporary loading and unloading purposes.

Of course, most of these rules are only enforced on a complaint basis, particularly in SFH neighborhoods where the problems tend to be somewhat isolated.

[spencgr]

Obviously in the minority here, but it doesn't bother me.

[FCNova]

I agree, not cool unless they asked you. I know people don't own the street but street parking in front of your house should be available to you, not constantly used up by neighbors who own too many cars. Even if I didn't need it for my cars I would want them open for guests who visited us.

[Ffxdata]

We don't have this problem in our neighborhood but I remember being much more bothered by people parking directly behind my driveway (on the opposite side of the street) than in front of the house itself. It makes it very difficult to back out a larger vehicle. That was in a neighborhood with long driveways and 2 or 3 car garages to boot.

[gomason]

I see how that could annoy you.

What bothers me more is those that have garages in Arlington with enough space to park their cars in their driveway, yet take away precious residential street parking for god knows what.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by Ffxdata

We don't have this problem in our neighborhood but I remember being much more bothered by people parking directly behind my driveway (on the opposite side of the street) than in front of the house itself. It makes it very difficult to back out a larger vehicle. That was in a neighborhood with long driveways and 2 or 3 car garages to boot.

That is also a pet peeve of mine. Why? Because I remember when I was in high school, my friend back straight out of her driveway and crashed right into the car the was directly across from her driveway entrance. She wasn't used to someone being there and looking directly behind her (versus side to side) before backing out.

We have really wide streets so it's not been too much of an issue but I've always warned my driving teens about it because they tend to back way out before turning for some reason.

[Charles22]

If you want to own the space in front of your house, you need to buy another car that you can leave there when you go out.

[LynchburgLover]

We're on a cur-de- sac of about 12 houses. Probably half have so much stuff in their garage, they can't fit their cars in. So there's cars all over the street. Really junky looking.

People don't realize how this affects property values.

And Flamingo, can you complain to HOA or homeowner? That's really excessive.

[gomason]

Originally Posted by LynchburgLover

We're on a cur-de- sac of about 12 houses. Probably half have so much stuff in their garage, they can't fit their cars in. So there's cars all over the street. Really junky looking.

People don't realize how this affects property values.

And Flamingo, can you complain to HOA or homeowner? That's really excessive.

God no that's not excessive. I've heard so many stories about HOAs complsining about EVERYTHING.