assigned parking

In our townhouse community, our governing documents state that each lot is entitled to 2 parking spaces, 1 of which can be permanently assigned by the Board. In the 20 years we've existed, that space has never been assigned..I've heard from previous Board members that the topic has been broght up before, but met with some strong opposition. Each section tends to have a "gentleman's agreement" as to where to park, but lately we've had some serious issues in certain sections (arguments, vandalism, 4 &5 vehicles for 1 household) and now the Board feels we need to take some action. Since most homeowners have more than one vehicle, we would really like to assign both spaces, and were thinking of a type of "lotto" to choose the 2nd space. Anyone ever done anything like this??
Also, for those having more than 2 cars, we were thinking about having them purchase a guest parking space for a small nominal fee, such as $50.00 per year. Our problem is the way we are situated, there are no options for street parking, no driveways..just the limited spaces we have in front of our units...and many feel its not fair for those w/more than 2 cars to be able to park them here. Possibly having them purchase the spaces will help those opposed to multi-vehicle owners be more ok w/the situation. Athough there are those who have more than 2 cars just because they wanted another car, most are parents with driving teenagers, or extended families living in the same household. Any ideas that we can toss around at our next Board meeting would be greatly appreciated!

Holly, How many total spaces do you have per home? Are that more than 2 per home? We're in VA, and right after the Builder turned over control to the HOA, they established two Reserved spaces per home. There are 2.3 total spaces per home and that was the zoning requirement back in 1989 when the community was developed. Another problem stems from the fact that there is no requirement (as in the newer communities)to keep your garage clear so that a vehicle fits in the garage; and they other problem stems from the fact that in some parts of the community, there are both garage and non-garage homes. Therefore some of the garage owners use their garages to store phone books from 1962 or whatever and then abuse the open spaces of which there are only 1 for every 3 townhomes.
One of the reasons that they originally mandated 2 reserved spaces per homes was for resale value. Doesn't everyone have two cars? When they setup the reserved spaces, the allocated one space fairly proximate to the home and they second space would in the same general area but not as close to home as the first space.

Another way to deal with these cars may be to let your juridiction enforce the zoning laws. It seems that many of our homes, there are far more people residing in the home than they allow per the zoning laws in our county. In our jurisdiction, there are limitations on how many people can reside in one home. In these cases, we've let the zoning office enforce the laws; especially when they have people living in basements with no fire escape. When you see that there is 8 - 10 people in a smalll 3 BR townhome, this not only places a burden of parking but other services as well. IE - Trash services, and other facilities.

As far as the excess open spaces are concerned, label them as "Visitor", make them available to everone, but place a time limitation on them, (IE - 3 calendar days), so folks do not 'store' their extra vehicles there. Also - use your parking resolution to preclude commercial vehicles IE - Trucks with ladder racks and any vehicles with advertising. Good luck.

Thanks, Roger. I appreciate your input!