Minneapolis will fine you for putting too many cars in your own driveway

EmersonHart13

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Minneapolis will fine you for putting too many cars in your own driveway | City Pages

Regulatory ignorance is parking bliss.

Ying Lee and her family moved to northeast Minneapolis two years ago, and have lived in a relative parker's paradise for those two years. The house's back driveway, half-paved and half-gravel, can fit six cars, more than perfect for a family of seven with five cars.

Two days into the new year, though, the family received a notice that, due to a city of Minneapolis ordinance, theyā€™re only allowed to park two cars in their oversized driveway. The family obliged, but the weather did not.

When the city called a snow emergency on January 15, Leeā€™s family thought they were being dutiful Minneapolis residents by getting their cars into the driveway and leaving the street to the plows. She says they planned to leave the cars in the driveway for the night, then move three of them back to the street.

The next day, the family was slapped with a hefty $200 fine from the city. Lee was stunned by the city's lack of understanding, and by the penalty.

ā€œI saw that, and I just kind of screamed, ā€˜What? Two hundred dollars?ā€™ā€ Lee said.

Lee posted about her driveway ordeal on Facebook, where she found many sympathetic fellow citizens; the post was met with nearly 500 replies. Most expressed shock that the ordinance exists, others shared a few expletives in solidarity with the Lees, and many did both.

They might be even more shocked to learn fines like Lee's are hardly a rare occurrence. Since January 2017, Minneapolis handed out over 275 fees in relation to this violation.

In an email, Greta Bergstrom, communications director for the city of Minneapolis, said the ordinance is in place to ā€œensure residential lawns do not become parking lots.ā€ Bergstrom also noted that residents are only fined if they donā€™t stop after the initial notice.

Ward 2 Councilmember Cam Gordon said he has only vaguely heard of instances where this is an issue, and struggled to come up with a reason for it.

ā€œIā€™m not even sure itā€™s illegal,ā€ he said. ā€œIā€™m usually pretty good at mimicking a good rationale for coming up with these things.ā€

For what itā€™s worth, Lee and her family are attempting to appeal the fine, but have not heard back from the city.
 

zenriddles

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[MENTION=653]BrianG[/MENTION]
Add another notch to the reason i moved to unincorporated

THIS for the last 25 years! A ticket for parking MY car on MY property? LOL! If you get off my property NOW, you just might not get shot....

I am 'down' to just 7 cars now, all in the garage and driveway. But I CAN leave my cars in the street too if I wish, and have for a couple weeks at a time on occasion. NFG.

Snowplow guy HATES this, and goes out of his way to push snow up behind/in front of your car. So the neighbors banded up and park 5 or 6 cars in a row. Plow truck buries the end cars, cars in center drive out and end cars have a clean path - fuck you, Mr. Plow.

Still can't park across the sidewalk, DuPage Sheriff has cited us for that a couple times.
 

zenriddles

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Some HOAs force you to keep cars in the garage. Not good if you have teenage kids and/or more than 2 cars. Read the HOA rules for any subdivision you are thinking about moving into... Before you purchase the home.

Some HOA's make you leave your garage OPEN all day long to discourage taking in homeless people...
 

Bob Kazamakis

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All cities have stupid ones.

Elgin has one where you can't have a car, parked in your driveway, parked over the sidewalk at the end... Uh, we have somewhat short driveways, so two cars end to end DO that!
Well yea......youā€™re blocking the sidewalk. Thatā€™s a fairly universal law......
 

FESTER665

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116f8c67b3c233996a5feb37519deaaa.jpg


I was happy to see the guy across the street finally park his work truck in his own driveway...

Until I realized he just parked his boat in the lawn instead of getting rid of the broken down explorer in the other side of the driveway. :bowrofl:
 

Chester Copperpot

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Elitists in Mount Prospect complained about work trucks being parked in people's driveways. So if you have a work truck or van, you have to put white magnets all over it when it is in your driveway, or you get a ticket.

People are weird.

Suburban soccer moms and retired fucks with another 30 years left with nothing better to do than worry about inconsequential shit about other people. Suburbia hell.
 

Pewter-Camaro

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Mother effin' word.



People hatin' on HOA's but they keep neighborhoods from looking like shit.



Yup reasonable HOA or city laws are great at keeping the neighborhood looking decent. Schaumburg has laws about parking work trucks with logos and trailers in front of the house. They have to be on the side of the house. Funny enough there is a guy that has a plane without the wings in his driveway in front of his house. Since the law doesnā€™t specifically say airplane he can keep it there. LOL!
 

Intel

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I got dinged for 2 cars without up to date registration in my driveway by city code enforcement. They really dont like my 510 in my driveway even after I put the updated sticker on it. Tried to say the 510 was inoperable but it has pedals/steering wheel and a milk crate so I can move it into my garage to work on it. Sold the fiesta so that problem is fixed.
 

FESTER665

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Yeah, I wish they would do more for shitty looking front yards here.... I was bit pissed that he just kept parking on the street but this wasn't what I thought would happen. LOL

How about get rid of the car that doesn't run, or sell the boat since it hasn't moved in over two years, or get rid of your truck since you drive it maybe once a month.... Blah.
 

The Beast

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I hate the thought of an HOA but really can't stand looking at that out my front window either.

Not that my place is tha Taj Mahal by any stretch, it just doesn't look like their place either.

the thing that bothers me is people not keeping up with their homes such as broken items left out front, grass cutting or no snow removal, broken mail boxes, homes needing paint , fallen fences, junk boats, trailers or junk cars in front of there home. problem is it makes the whole neighborhood look like crap and especially the neighbor right next door. People always say they want to live in unincorporated areas until they neighbor lives like Sanford and son
 

2QuikTA

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Yeah, I wish they would do more for shitty looking front yards here.... I was bit pissed that he just kept parking on the street but this wasn't what I thought would happen. LOL

How about get rid of the car that doesn't run, or sell the boat since it hasn't moved in over two years, or get rid of your truck since you drive it maybe once a month.... Blah.

I never understood peopleā€™s issues with street parking. What was the issue with him parking in the street?
 

Stink Star

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For one the plows canā€™t effectivly do their jobs and when the snow sits on the street for a long time it turns into a block of ice.

Second, my neighbors constantly park in front of my house instead of their own for some reason and block my mailbox. We are big users of amazon and also get prescriptions through the mail.... you know how much it sucks to have to go to the post office 2x a week just to get your mail?



What I dont understand is why not park in that magical room attached to your house specifically designed for housing vehicles? How in the actual fuck to people decide to keep worthless junk in their garage and go outside and brush snow off their cars every day and sit in an icy brick for 20 minutes before driving off?
 

lefty

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For one the plows canā€™t effectivly do their jobs and when the snow sits on the street for a long time it turns into a block of ice.

Second, my neighbors constantly park in front of my house instead of their own for some reason and block my mailbox. We are big users of amazon and also get prescriptions through the mail.... you know how much it sucks to have to go to the post office 2x a week just to get your mail?

There are ways to fix that. Snowblow all the snow around their car, cut the crass and spray the clippings all over their car. Put your garbage cans next to their car. Put a bird feeder in your lawn right by where they park it. I would obviously talk to them about it first but there are ways to deal with that.
 
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