Costs, process ruin parking-ban law, groups say

As reported in the Chronicle

By CAROLYN FEIBEL

After years of pleading with city officials, neighborhood activists finally got what they wanted: a way to crack down on people who park cars in their yards. But the city has made implementing the ban too difficult and expensive, civic leaders now say.

The program begins next week, but the city has yet to work out crucial issues involving notification and enforcement. The City Council did not budget for the program, so planning officials decided to shift the costs to residents. Neighborhood associations could have to pay thousands of dollars in mailing costs just to apply.

“I think it’s outrageous,” said Ann Collum, president of the Glenbrook Valley Civic Club. “We’re doing all the work and then there’s still no guarantee that our neighborhood is going to get approved and get to participate in it.”

The yard-parking ban passed in January, but it is not universal. Neighborhoods must “opt in” to the ban by applying to the Department of Planning & Development. The current application requires civic clubs to pay for first-class mailings to every property owner that would fall under the parking ban.

“We’re seeing whole neighborhoods come in (to apply), like 5,000 residences,” said Planning Department spokeswoman Suzy Hartgrove. “We underestimated the magnitude of the interest in the program. We weren’t fully budgeted for this, and this was a way for neighborhoods to share the cost.”

Councilman James Rodrigruez said it is unfair to force less-wealthy neighborhoods to pay for postage, envelopes and signs.

“The civic clubs, they have a hard time collecting dues as it is,” he said. “They don’t have a whole lot of money.”

Sharpstown, for example, has more than 6,800 homes. Informing all the owners through a first-class mailing would cost at least $3,000.

Milton Winebrenner, the Sharpstown Civic Association president, said he is asking the city to allow them to do a bulk-rate mailing.

Other neighborhood leaders want to know why they cannot use their regular homeowner association newsletter to inform residents.

With a postage rate increase expected in May, neighborhood leaders are clamoring for answers. Hartgrove said the department was considering a bulk-mail compromise, but nothing had been decided as of Wednesday.

“We don’t want to have to do it again if we did something wrong,” said Cindy Peden Chapman, president of the Westbury Civic Club.

The subdivision has almost 5,000 homes. “I don’t want to waste money." she said. "I just want to do it in a way that’s cost effective.”

Councilwoman Toni Lawrence, who championed the yard-parking ban for many years, admitted that implementing the program was “much more complicated than I thought it would be. But because we’re a property-rights, non-zoned city, there are certain things you have to do.”