The Plymouth City Council members will continue looking into a possible ordinance to address parking in front yards.
The issue was brought up earlier this month after City Attorney Sean Surrisi said the Plymouth Plan Commission members talked about it in a meeting. They would like to see the City Council members address the issue in an ordinance that restricts the practice.
Mayor Mark Senter said he sent out an email to 122 mayors in the state about similar regulations concerning parking cars in front yards and did not get any responses. The mayor did say that he got a response from a resident saying that they are against an ordinance. Surrisi said he received communication from another resident who is in full support of an ordinance.
Plymouth City Councilman Jeff Houin said he has heard comments in the past where people have complained about seeing several cars parked in front yards. He added that he will be interested to see the wording of a proposed ordinance as how space is defined.
“You can’t really tell if you’re not looking closely if it just looks like it’s a driveway or adjacent to a house,” said Houin. “Then you’ve got other places where you’ve got six cars squeezed into small yard and I can understand why somebody wouldn’t want that in the neighborhood. Where you strike the balance and how you define a yard and parking in the yard is going to be to tricky.”
Mayor Senter also suggested a time frame as the discussion turned to parking during the Blueberry Festival and family reunions.
Surrisi suggested keeping the item on the agenda. More information could be presented at the next meeting.
