Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Are Residential Parking Permits Legal?
I live in the San Diego State University area of the city of San Diego in California. There was an ordinance established in 1977 that says that residents are required to purchase permits to park their vehicles in the areas surrounding the University. There was also a resolution established which limits the number of permits per address to 4. I rent a house and I have 3 roommates, each with their own car. We all work full time and 2 of my roommates have work-vehicles (vehicles that they use on the job) as well as their own vehicles. So, in total, we have 6 vehicles. Don't we have the right to own as many cars as we want? This ordinance, in essence, is limiting the number or vehicles we can own. We will be fined if we do not have parking permits for all of our vehicles, but we can only have 4 permits and we own 6 cars. Can I take any action against the city?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Are Residential Parking Permits Legal?
You have the right to own as many cars as you want, and the city also has the right to say how many you can park on its streets, when and where you can park them (if at all), and whether you have to pay for the right to park. Remember, the city owns the street, and it has the right and probably the duty to manage the street, like any public property, for the good of the community as a whole. In crowded neighborhoods, this means parking restrictions. The city's ultimate weapon would be to make your street a 24-hour no parking tow-away zone, which they certainly have the power to do, although abuse of such powers would likely lead to replacement of the incumbent council at the next election.
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