Transportation

COUNTY ORDINANCE ON RESTRICTED PARKING AREAS

Ordinance 13-320.1: Click to read a Restricted Parking Ordinance Advisory 

Policy Overview

This policy establishes the process by which citizens request the creation of restricted parking areas.

By County Ordinance 13-320.1 the Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) can establish restricted parking areas for any or all of the following:

• Watercraft
• Boat trailers
• Motor homes
• Camping trailers

Entire communities as well as sections of roads can be considered as restricted parking areas. To be eligible community support must exist and the roads under consideration are a part of the State’s secondary road system.

Community Support

Petition - A petition with at least 51 percent of the identified impacted households being in support of the proposed restriction is necessary. Petition areas and affected households are identified by the Department of Transportation in cooperation with the appropriate County Supervisor’s office. The petition should identify the area and the extent of the restriction sought and should be submitted in a format provided by the Department of Transportation.

Home Owner Associations

HOA Resolution - Home owners associations (HOA) may submit a written request provided the request is accompanied by an approved resolution of the association authorizing the association's board of directors to request establishment of the restricted parking area. This resolution has to have been adopted at a meeting of the association of which all members received notice in accordance with the association’s bylaws and at which a quorum of membership as defined in the association’s bylaws was present and voted on the resolution. This information should be included in the requesting association’s resolution. A map shall also be attached from the requesting association reflecting the roads within the community to be covered under the ordinance.

Process Steps

One the requesting community representative contacts the Department of Transportation to determine the boundary and eligibility of the streets requested for restriction and as needed to confirm the terminus of the homeowner association’s boundaries. This conformation is the responsibility of the requesting HOA and should be reflected in its resolution.

Two the requesting community submits the petition or HOA resolution to the appropriate County Supervisor’s Office. After a review of the submitted documents the Transportation Department will provide a resolution to the Board of County Supervisors asking them to holding a public hearing for the establishment of a restricted parking area.

Three following the BOCS establishment of a restricted parking area the Department of Transportation will conduct a field review to mark locations for restricted parking signs. A sketch of the proposed signs’ location and a copy of the BOCS approved resolution are forwarded to the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) for review. With VDOT approval the restricted parking signs are posted by the County.

Signs

Signs are posted at the entry points to the community or at the beginning and end of the restricted parking area if less than an entire community is designated. Sign wording shall be a standard format and will be modified on a case-by-case basis if necessary to most accurately notify the public of the existence and nature of the parking restriction adopted by the BOCS.

Code of Virginia § 46.2-1222 Regulation of parking on secondary highways by certain counties.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law the governing bodies of Fairfax James City Loudoun Montgomery Prince George Prince William and York Counties by ordinance may (i) restrict or prohibit parking on any part of the state secondary system of highways within their respective boundaries (ii) provide for the classification of vehicles for the purpose of these restrictions and prohibitions and (iii) provide that the violation of the ordinance shall constitute a traffic infraction and prescribe penalties therefore.

All signs and other markings designating the areas where parking is prohibited or restricted shall be installed by the county at its expense under permit from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Definitions see Code of Virginia 46.2-100

Trailer - Means every vehicle without motive power designed for carrying property or passengers wholly on its own structure and for being drawn by a motor vehicle including manufactured homes.

Motor Home – Means a structure subject to federal regulation transportable in one or more sections which in the traveling mode is eight body feet or more in width or 40 body feet or more in length or when erected on site is 320 or more square feet and which is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities and includes the plumbing heating air conditioning and electrical systems contained therein.

Camping Trailer – Means every vehicle that has collapsible sides and contains sleeping quarters but may or may not contain bathing and cooking facilities and is designed to be drawn by a motor vehicle.

Boat Trailer - Any trailer designed or used for transporting boats or watercraft.

Watercraft - Any floating device designed or used for transportation over water.

“Identified Households” - Those residentially zoned or used by properties with frontage on immediately adjacent to or within five hundred feet of a road or any portion thereof proposed as a restricted parking area. Those properties which do not have frontage or are not immediately adjacent to such a road are not “identified households” unless their primary means of egress from their community is over such a road.

If a resolution is forwarded to the Department of Transportation in lieu of a petition, it must contain the following:

A property owners’ association having the power to enforce covenants on properties meeting the description set forth in County Ordinance 13-320.1 subsection (b)(i). A written request from such a property owners’ association shall be construed as the petition of the owners of all properties under the control of the association meeting the description set forth in County Ordinance 13-320.1 subsection (b)(1) provided the request is accompanied by an approved resolution of the association authorizing the association’s board of directors to request establishment of a restricted parking area; reciting the terms and conditions of the parking restriction to be sought; stating that the resolution was adopted at a general meeting of the association of which all members received notice in accordance with the association’s bylaws that a quorum of the membership as defined in the bylaws was present and voting on the resolution that the notice of the meeting included notice that the association would consider requesting the establishment of a restricted parking zone and the terms of the requested restrictions and that the meeting was held in conformance with any and all other requirements of the association’s bylaws. The resolution must be certified by the secretary of the property owners’ association.

(c)  Each designation shall include the reason for the restriction a description of the area in which parking is restricted and the terms of such restriction. Notwithstanding any restriction a trailer connected to a motor vehicle designed for pulling such trailer and not otherwise prohibited from parking by section 13-327 of the County code may park within a restricted area for up to seventy two (72) hours.

SAMPLE

Petition in Support of Consideration to Restrict Parking of Trailers Watercraft Boat Trailers Motor Homes and Camping Trailers

 Today’s Date

We the undersigned are familiar with the Ordinance and definitions thereof and do hereby support the designation of ________________________________________ as an area in which the parking of trailers watercraft boat trailers motor homes and camping trailers is prohibited. Any trailer connected to a motor vehicle designed for pulling such and not otherwise prohibited from parking by section 13-327 of the County code may park within a restricted area for up to seventy two (72) hours for the purposes of loading/unloading and maintenance.

Name                            Address                                                            Signature    

Contact the Department of Transportation by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 703-792-6825.