2008-12-07 13:02
Nowhere To Park In The County
While watching Oregon State’s Rose Bowl bid fall apart, my house had a friendly visit from one of our local sheriff’s deputies reminding two of my house guests that they couldn’t park on the streets in the county between November 1st and April 1st… ever. Now being a typical county residence, my house has a two-car driveway, which is usually filled with our two trucks, so I have found myself in a holiday party-throwing quandary.
Before macro climatic warming events began, Flagstaff and the surrounding area used to get snow, a lot of snow. Of course, snow removal equipment needs adequate access around the streets to get rid of all that white stuff, so the city has a pretty cut and dry policy of not parking on the streets overnight, meaning Midnight until 7 AM in most of the city, and 3 AM until 7 AM in the historic downtown area (mainly to accommodate bar employees and patrons). The county, however, hasn’t done that great of a job clarifying the issue.
Searching the web for the Coconino County seasonal parking ordinance will return you with absolutely nothing of substance besides a few interpretations of the ordinance. The actual law is County Ordinance 86-6 so kindly emailed to me by Julie Moyer at the Board of Supervisors office.
Any motor vehicle parked in a manner that presents an obstacle to efficient snow removal operations may be cited.
So does this mean if the vehicle is parked and there is absolutely no snow removal activity happening at that time, that vehicle is legally parked? Or does it mean, as the local deputy had suggested, that vehicle could be construed an obstacle if snow removal were to happen sometime in the future (or past)? I imagine the latter is the case. Now if the county could let me know how I am supposed to clear my driveway on my way home from work so I could use it, without parking on the street to do some quick driveway shoveling, I would be able to sleep at night. And forget about having anyone over to your house that has to drive, lest you will be spending lots of time and money driving to the impound lot. Maybe my lawyer type friends could figure this one out.
booyah
Dec 7, 09:29 PM #
Can you provide the interpretations you found on the website? Those are important, as is who was doing the interpreting.
The good news is that nobody gets to actually decide what it means except for a court. The other good news is that your first interpretation (that it’s impossible to present an obstacle when there’s no snow removal) isn’t a strained reading at all. The bad news is neither is the other reading.
The other bad news is that if the people interpreting it are supposed to be administering it, the court will likely give their interpretation a lot of weight. The other bad news is that in order to get a court to decide what it means, you’re going to have to get ticketed/towed and then dispute the meaning of the ordinance—the court isn’t going to just chime in.
You could also just ask the county commissioners and / or sheriff what they think it means. Whatever the dude knocking on your door told you is probably really irrelevant.
The interesting thing is that if I remember your quiet get togethers, it seems like maybe the county is using this law as a way to police / harass behavior entirely foreign to anything related to snow removal. If that’s the case, and your challenge to its enforcement comes up in that context, you’re going to paint a pretty sympathetic picture for a court.
Jeff
Dec 8, 09:02 AM #
Well, I guess the “interpretations” I have run across on the web are more accurately characterized as synopses of the ordinance, taking the critical bits and reiterating them. At any rate, your final point is the real kicker here, as my area, formerly referred to as “Downtown Mountainaire” has been newly designated as the “Mountainaire Projects”. We have become, due to some negligent and impudent neighbors, a favorite stopping grounds for the five-oh. Of course, the new law in the neighborhood also finds it in his best interest to regularly open the door to the kitchen at the local watering hole clearly marked “Employees Only” unannounced.