BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — Boynton Beach residents will soon face new restrictions on where they can park vehicles on their own property, with violations potentially resulting in citations starting Feb. 1.
WATCH BELOW: 'We just want all of our residents to hold themselves accountable,' Commissioner Thomas Turkin tells WPTV
The city's new parking ordinance aims to address what officials describe as widespread parking issues in residential neighborhoods, where large vehicles, cars have been parked in yards, on sidewalks and blocking roadways.
"You pretty much have to swerve around it and wait for other vehicles to pass. There's some houses that are loitered with vehicles and that sort of stuff, it's kind of an eyesore," said Boynton Beach resident Kevin Sanchez, who supports the parking changes.
Under the new rules, vehicles will only be allowed in driveways or parked horizontally at the end of driveways without blocking sidewalks. Long-term parking on streets or in yards will be prohibited, as will oversized trucks like 18-wheelers, and inoperable vehicles with flat tires, broken windows or missing license plates.
"I'm actually in favor of it, because I believe it does bring property values up," Sanchez said.
However, some residents oppose the changes, saying they moved to areas without homeowners associations specifically to avoid such restrictions.
Logan Poirier said city codes are costing him tens of thousands of dollars in modifications to his property.
"We're redoing our grass, because the city told us to, and we had to expand our driveway, because the city told us to," Poirier said. "We purposefully bought in this neighborhood, because the city wasn't going to do a bunch of things, there was no HOA. And now it's turning into something that seems way more than necessary, as far as restrictions go."
WPTV took his concerns to his Boynton Beach District Commissioner Thomas Turkin.
He said the new ordinances respond to years of resident complaints and concerns that blocked roads create obstacles for first responders.
"We just want all of our residents to hold themselves accountable, hold each other accountable and ultimately, if that doesn't happen, the city then needs to hold people accountable," Turkin said.
Turkin said he prefers taking an educational approach before issuing citations, though enforcement decisions will ultimately rest with code enforcement and the city manager's office.
"I'm pretty confident that code enforcement will be reasonable, subjective and work with a lot of these homeowners in a different fashion than HOAs will," Turkin said.
The ordinance includes one exception: temporary parking in yards is permitted for social or other events at residences, provided the parking doesn't exceed 12 hours in a 24-hour period.
Some residents remain frustrated with the new restrictions.
"We literally can't park our cars anywhere except for our yards and if you don't have a driveway, you're screwed," said resident Cristina Super. "We're not in an HOA, so stop being bullies."
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