No-Parking Code Like A Crazy Quilt Pattern

For many Ann Arbor residents the daily parking problem does not end when they leave work. It only begins. A city ordinance prohibits parking motor vehicles in front yards "anead of the established setback line." This means simply that your front yard is yours to do with as you wish ... as long as you don't use it to park your car, truck or motorcycle. Stories are widespread about how strictly . . . or loosely . . . this ordinance is enforced. Robert E. Gay of 624 S. División St. testifies to the strict interpretation of the law. He parked his motorcycle on the sidewalk leading to the front steps of his home. He got a ticket. He contends there exist more flagrant parking violations in the city which are ignored. A Dexter resident, W. H. McDougald, complains that the site of a razed building at 1333 Washtenaw Ave. is not only being used for parking but the owner of the property, Charter Realty, is renting spaces for the parking. A spokesman for the real estáte company says the parking area is an open lot and is being used as a private parking place. He says that because there is no building on the lot the "setback" law cannot be applied. The Charter official noted that a vacant house next door to 1331 Washtenaw Ave. is scheduled to be razed on Monday and it is possible that lot also may be used for parking. But other local residents have pointed out numerous instances of "ahead of the setback line" parking in the city, especially on University property. In face of the situation, Ann Arbor Pólice Chief Walter E. Krasny and Line Capt. Howard A. Zeek throw up their hands. They admit neither to a "strict' 'nor a "loóse" interpretation of the "setback" parking law. "There's much the public doesn't realize about this ordinance," Krasny says. "One fact is that the ordinance itself comes under the city's Department of Building and Safety Engineering. It is not a Traffic Code ordinance nor is it part of the law governing metered parking. It's a little bit of an orphan as far as responsibility for enforcement." The law originally was passed by City Council in an effort to improve the appearance of neighborhoods. It was an attempt to insure that front yards did not become "junk yards" composed of parked and disabled motor vehicles. The Pólice Department inherited over the years the I responsibility of enforcing the ordinance. But patrolmen dislike that duty. A major reason for their objection to enforcing the law ' is the uncertainty of its coverage. "There are a number of individual houses and business places which are specifically exempt from this ordinance," Capt. Zeek explains. "Many acquired the exemption at the time the original ordinance was passed. The exemptions were granted for a number of reasons including the longtime previous use of the property for parking. You can find such exempted places less than two blocks from the City Hall." As a consequence of the patchwork pattern of the ordinance's coverage, patrolmen many times are reluctant to issue a violation ticket to a vehicle parked on a front yard. Gay's experience of having his motorcycle ticketed while it was parked near his front steps is called "unusual" by Capt. Zeek. "Our running volume of work by uniformed officers is terrific," he notes. "Seeking out vehicles parked in front of the setback is not part of the daily routine of a road officer. If it ever gets to be part of that routine more pressing and vital phases of law enforcement will suffer." Krasny points out that his department will send an officer to an address to check on "setback" parking if a complaint about the parking is filed by a citizen. But he notes that many times when such complaints are received it is discovered the property involved is either in the "exempt" category or is owned by the University. If the land is University-owned it comes under a special exemption. Because the University is a state institution, it is not required to observe city ordinances. The "setback" ordinance is one it can- and does - ignore. Construction crews working on University buildings are often given permission by U-M officials to park their vehicles on a lawn or lot in front of the building. On one day, 10 vehicles were seen and photographed parked across the sidewalk beside the East Quadrangle. The answer to the entire problem, some say, might be a change in the ordinance- to make it strongerand more uniform- and a campaign to persuade the University to agree to cooperate with the ordinance. Meanwhile the parking-setback ordinance remains unpopular and many times unenforeed.