Edhat Staff
By an edhat reader
We live in a busy residential area. A neighbor wants to block people from parking on the street that also serves as a back entrance to their house that they rarely use, only for their boat (and they’ve cleared the sidewalk somehow and put dirt there as well as wood planks get left there). Today we got this note telling us not to park there.
We know this isn’t right but does anybody know the legality of this?
I don’t know if it is legal, but they certainly should not leave boards in the gutter, as that will mess up drainage, if we should ever be so fortunate to get any rain. Consider, however, that if they make it into a marked, legal driveway, you will never be able to park there. Right now they ask for access mainly on Saturdays and Mondays. It might be worth talking to them–you could get their permission to park there most days, and they could call you if they need access.
Your neighbor left a nice note asking for your tolerance. I’d suggest they paint the curb red for the 8-10 feet that they’d like to be kept clear. They probably could put in a concrete apron to the gate if they can’t get trivial cooperation from the local neighbors.
The stone wall has a gate in it so maybe it’s a permitted D/W and they weren’t into spending enough to make aesthetically pleasing to their neighbors.
Definitely could be a permited legal driveway without the curb being developed. I had a similar situation and people kept blocking my legal access. So after a fair number of warnings I would just call and simply have them towed away. Everybody in the neighborhood got it pretty quickly.
Property access doesn’t need to look pretty. You were blocking the neighbor’s access. The neighbor left a polite note.
If he is parking off the street ( in his back yard) then he is doing everyone a favor. He could (legally) park in that spot on the street and take up space. He may have a work truck or some other unattractive vehicle that the OP would complain about. The note was polite and he was dealing with it neighbor to neighbor. I think I would try to accomdate this person if I could.