Washington hopes to finalize yard parking rules

An earlier version of this article erroneously said the ordinance was passed into law on Tuesday, Sept. 17, not that it completed the first of three public readings required by law. The online version of the article has been corrected to fix this error.

WASHINGTON — City council members have completed the first round of approval votes on new rules for Washington residents parking in their yards last week.

The city code amendment limits off-street parking to 24 hours at a time in front yards, but would allow vehicles to stay on concrete, asphalt or gravel parking pads in side and backyards indefinitely. Vehicles in driveways would not be subject to the restrictions. The changes would also require that vehicles have current registrations and be capable of moving forward or backward to classify as “operable.”

“I do think this is a balance,” City Administrator Joe Gaa said. “When we’re looking out our doors and windows, we don’t want to see a sea of cars or gravel covering a parking lot or yard, but we want to give people the right to use their property … there’s no way to make a perfect ordinance, but I do think this is fair.”

The ordinance reflects concerns by some community members that previous proposals, which would have limited the number and type of certain vehicles parked in yards, were too strict. It also revised an earlier proposal with a 72-hour time limit for vehicles parked in yards, which city officials said would be unenforceable.

The ordinance passed its first reading in a unanimous vote. It is scheduled for a second reading Tuesday, Oct. 1.

Some community members said the proposal left their concerns unaddressed.

Discussions of the first versions of Washington’s latest ordinance started early this year, when residents Bob and Mary Ann Minick complained of a neighbor whose trailers, parked in a backyard, ruined the view out their living room window.

While they said they appreciated that front yard parking now has limits, Minicks remain unsatisfied with the new city ordinance’s limits. They said without putting a cap on the number of trailers a property can park, the new law did nothing to remedy their complaints.

The family has claimed at several council meetings that elements of the now-finalized ordinance would allow Washington homeowners to turn their yards into parking lots, or makeshift scrapyards.

“We don’t expect that our neighbor’s going to do that, but this is an issue that covers our whole town,” Bob Minick said after last week’s meeting. “All you have to do is put some gravel down.”

Gaa said he didn’t expect that to become an issue.

“I think the biggest thing is for us to enforce the junk vehicle ordinance a little bit more,” he said. “I don’t think operable vehicle parking is as much of a scare.”

Another community member, Bernard Singleton, has argued that city code should prevent large campers and motor homes from parking in town on any surface, claiming they block sight lines more than most fences, which do have a height limit.

While a similar reform was included in the yard parking changes’ first proposal in February, it has long since been scrapped. Community members at the time said they lacked other places to park their recreational vehicles.

“I do not like being able to park motor homes and camping trailers in a front yard or driveway,” he said.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com