- 101° HI
- 76 LO
City News
No Parking in Yards Ordinance Approved
Update on August 27: The City Council approved the ordinance on second and final reading at the meeting last night. The ordinance goes into effect on September 10, 2008.
——–
Parking a car, truck, or trailer in a front or side yard of a home will no longer be allowed in the City of Georgetown. If approved, a new ordinance would require such vehicles to be parked on approved driveway or other surface for residential property. The prohibition would improve the appearance of residential areas and address complaints about parking in yards.
The parking ordinance was approved in a 7-0 vote by the City Council on first reading on August 12. It is scheduled for second and final reading on August 26.
The ordinance prohibits parking a car, truck, recreational vehicle, trailer, boat, motorcycle, or other vehicle in a front or side yard at a residence unless it is on an approved surface, which may include concrete, asphalt, or gravel. Bicycles are not included in the prohibition.
The ordinance does not change rules for parking on the street, which prohibit parking trailers, motor homes, or commercial trucks on the street in residential areas. (Loading or unloading is permitted.)
Adoption of the ordinance would not change requirements in the City’s development code that allow for no more than 50 percent of a residential front yard to be used for a parking area. The code also has requirements for screening with fencing or shrubs for some parking configurations, as well as maximum allowable impervious cover limits for a lot. Impervious cover includes paved surfaces and buildings that create water runoff.
The ordinance also would not change requirements for sight triangles in the city development code. Sight triangles are clear zones near intersections and driveways where parking is not allowed so that drivers can see oncoming traffic.
Violation of the parking in driveways ordinance would be a class C misdemeanor, which is punishable by a fine of up to $500.
The second and final reading of the ordinance is scheduled for the August 26 council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. at the Council Chamber and Court Building, located at 101 E. Seventh Street in Georgetown. There will be a time for public comment on the ordinance at the meeting.
For details on the proposed ordinance, contact Julie McCartney, chief code enforcement officer with the Inspections Department at (512) 930-2550 or by email at codeenforcement@georgetowntx.org.
Posted in City Hall, Community Development
Print This Post
No Responses to “No Parking in Yards Ordinance Approved”
Thank you to the City Council for considering this ordinance. It is much needed in Old Town!
How dare you try to dictate on whether or not I can park in the yard that I own. Why do you try to instill the changes when you don’t even provide alternative parking solutions for residents that live in high traffic streets where parking is not even available. Where am I to park if I have a house full of people each with their own vehicle? Two blocks down on a side street? Before sucha rule is passed you should make sure every street in town is wide enough to have residents park there AND enough room for two way traffic.
I’m originally from Washington State where it’s legal to park on the side of the road as long as you’re not blocking a pesron’s drive-way. I have been here in the great state of Texas for the past 8 years where it’s 20 years behind of all other states especially Wahington when it comes to the laws. Why can’t Georgetown come to reality and notice that it is growing and will continue to grow with as Georgetown residents call “THE OUTSIDERS.” So Georgetown, get into the modern days now and see what can be changed besides these ridiculous laws/ordinances that Georgetown passes.
Sincerely,
Michael LaCroix
Thank you Geogetown City Council. This is a big problem in Old Town. Please enforce the laws.
Here in the US we are allowed to buy land and own it and do what we please with it with in sertan guide lines. but this ordinance makes this town seem comunistic. what are you doing city hall? maybe the next rule will be how many cars i can have in my drive way, or big my drive way has to be, or maybe even the color of it. let the owners own thier property.
If they make a rule on this, then they might as well should make it ileagal to park in the road next to the curb. This narrows the street! i have neighbors that park in the road right in front of my house. so if you cant park in the yard you shouldnt be parked on the road where traffic is moving! Fix that city hall
I RARELY, if ever,complain when I have read something in our paper, but for goodness sakes, you officials, whom we have voted into office, have really done it this time.I know your job is important, otherwise you wouldn’t have a job doing what you’re doing, but do something really important with our tax dollars. Raise our teacher’s salaries, they help shape the children of the upcoming generations.income, and now they have one other ‘rule’ to worry about. We should be paying teachers more than we pay doctors and lawyers. Their work helps solve problems, while Doctors and lawyers just treat the symptoms. A teacher cannot even raise a family on their Buy coats and shoes and clothes for children in our community who are cold. Buy food for families who can barely get by because of high prices, not to mention (again) fines given to cover ‘your rules’. Buy dog food and pay for vaccinations for animals that are at the Humane Society. I’d be more than happy to know that they were being taken care of by someone. Think up something really important to talk about and vote on,something that enhances our lives here in Georgetown. I’m not only writing this because I think this is unnecessary and a poor choice to make ‘rules’ such as where one can park a vehicle, but also because I can afford to pay fines, and I can afford a driveway. How many here in Georgetown cannot afford it? How many can’t even afford a newspaper. How many don’t have a computer? Come on. Think of your Mom, would you do this to her if it cost her money?
Hope you’ll listen to wisdom.
This is LUDACRIS! I live in a street where we can NOT park on either side of my house! Where am I supposed to have visitors park? How can you pass an ordinance without seeing the problems you are creating for those of us that don’t have huge driveways and/or streets where to park?!? It seems like the more Georgetown grows the worse it gets. I understand if the car is inoperable, but when it’s registered and gets moved why should it matter?!? I believe you need to spend more time passing ordinances that are MORE important than wasting time with petty things like this! I am appalled!
While I don’t have an opinion one way or another about whether people should park in their yards, I do not agree with Council’s new impetus to be a city-wide neighborhood association. Will we soon be seeing an ordinance on what color we may paint our mailboxes? If someone wants to live in a highly restrictive neighborhood, they move to that neighborhood where the residents, as a group, meet to decide whether or not a design standard works for their neighborhood setup.
Parking in the front yard raises no safety concerns; the only impact it has is aesthetic and should therefore not be the domain of the city government. City Council should be focusing on spending the city budget wisely, bringing business to town, beautifying the parks, etc., in other words, items that are probably harder to achieve and therefore not as fun to our councilmembers as the pet projects they’re currently championing.
The city of Georgetown is unable to stop drivers from running stop signs or speeding thru old-town. The city does nothing to enforce the noise ordinance, not a day goes by where I do not hear some drivers car stereo blasting away as then drive by. The no parking ordinance is a waste of tax payers hard earned money. Let’s put effort on enforcing the existing laws and ordinances before adding more to the list.
Wow georgetown just likes creating useless rules. Georgetown+City HALL= CUBA get it right city hall this rule is utterly usless.
It happened that I saw a picture of my little trailer in the newspaper shown as an example of an eyesore to Old Town, and how we needed to get these off the grass. I’ve been mowing that over 2500 square feet of city property grass for the past 10 years, since it would have looked real bad if I hadn’t been. Had they taken a picture of the street 90 degrees to the right, they would have seen the Johnson grass that grows in the broken gutter of the street. The sidewalks surrounding the block are broken and falling in. I don’t mind moving my little trailer, but if we are to make Old Town look better, the city needs to continue efforts towards the capital improvements to this part of town as well. And I don’t mind mowing the city lot in front of our house either, but I don’t think it should be my responsibility to be cutting down or dumping poison onto the 4 ft. tall johnson grass that grows IN THE STREET.
Question to the Mayor and Council.
Was there a runoff impact or discharge study completed for the Old Town area before the city council passed this ordinance? Unlike other newer developed areas of town where water runoff due to impervious cover is considered in advance of the design, Old Town was here before there were cars and the roads were dirt. Old Town already has a runoff problem with minimal infrastructure to handle it, and as homeowners we are required by the city to have a “discharge study” conducted before we can “alter the existing flow of the discharge across our property.”
I want to explore the reasoning that led the council to believe that increasing the impervious cover in Old Town is going to help ecologically, since a mere 10% increase in runoff due to impervious cover has a substantial negative impact on aquatic life. We sit on top of a hill, and it’s all going to run straight down to the river, carrying any oil and contaminants along with it.
Many cities are working to increase the amount of pervious cover, not the other way around, as a way of reducing runoff. Oil drips from a vehicle are better to be caught in the soil, better yet grass, where it can be intercepted and remediated by the enzymes in the soil. There is a much greater problem with the oil that is on the surface of the streets, so using the excuse that this is for ecological reasons does not hold much weight. Our neighbors with small lots have gravel drives that they park on that lead to a single car garage, as the designs of that era were. They are already near or at the maximum allowable impervious cover for their lot with no where else to park. The soil underneath these pervious drives has been handling and remediating minor drips of oil and preventing it from running off and into the river for decades.
I want to know if the ordinance decision was reached with the inclusion of environmental science, or just appealing to constituent complaints over aesthetic appearance of our neighborhood.
I would like to know what Environmental Engineering firm put their stamp on a document that states than an impervious surface should be required. It will certainly be the best surface to hold the oil until the next rain and then allow it all to collect with the increased runoff to head for the river.
I am in complete agreement that properties would look much better if the cars were parked in an “approved drive” instead of on the lawn, but requiring the surface to be impervious will not be good for Old Town.
The historical overlay for Old Town should continue to allow for pervious drives, and allow the owners of the property the freedom to park on them, just keep the cars off the grass.
One of the reasons for living in old town is the character that it has. I wake up to the trailer in the paper every morning and I like it. It is painted nicely and used often. I laughed when I saw it in the paper as an example of an ‘eyesore’.
The same goes for all the other oddities and icons of the people and history that have occupied this area for years. I understand that some people have put a lot of money and effort into their homes and it shows but I am not sure that we would be better off if we, as a community, decide everyone should conform to a single aesthetic ’style guide’. Old town is real and not a simulation.
I don’t want to live in Disneyland.
ok this is totally rediculous. now we are beging told where we can and cant park? my driveway is made of dirt &(pebble rocks)! sorry some of us dont have the money to afford such things especially at this point in time, in consideration with the way the economy is going. plus on top of the taxes that are being raised here in this city! Now if the city of georgetown wants to come and pave my drive way with the tax money I PAY every year; be my guest! but city hall is going to far here. In my opinon i think city hall is trying to find every little thing to make a rule on because in the end if someone doesnt comply money goes into thier pockets.