Holiday Parking

We hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving Holiday! Hopefully, there were plenty of visitor parking spaces for visiting loved ones, young and old. Contrary to popular belief, this is the essence behind Parking Resolution 2005-1. Last year, parking was on a first come, first serve basis to residents and visitors. If there were parking spaces available for your guests on Thanksgiving Day or at anytime over the holiday weekend this year, we would love to hear about it.

If you had company for Thanksgiving last year, there may not have been enough Visitor Spaces left for them. If you thought about it in time and one was available, you parked in a Visitor Space leaving your driveway or reserved space for your guests. This isn’t an ideal solution. One facet of the current parking resolution is to make sure there are visitor spaces open to our guests.

There was a parking resolution in place last year that was designed to protect our visitor spaces; however, a loop hole in that resolution allowed some residents to circumvent the spirit of the policy. This loophole had to be closed or a new resolution had to be created for equitable and fair usage of visitor spaces. This lead to the parking resolution we have now.

Unfortunately, there are a limited number of visitor parking spaces in our community. We must keep in mind there is only one visitor space for every 3 homes. We are faced with the problem that if a resident parks 2 additional cars in visitor parking, this removes two visitor parking spaces from 6 of his neighbors. Some residents believe these visitor parking spaces should be open solely to their visitors. Other residents want to use visitor parking for their additional vehicles and for other convenience reasons. With the introduction of Parking Resolution 2005-1, the Board has tried to accommodate both sides. Hopefully, the current parking resolution came through with flying colors this holiday season!

On January 13, 2006, residents will have the chance to vote to keep or rescind Parking Resolution 2005-1. If you believe that Parking Resolution 2005-1 is a fair and equitable solution that is working to your benefit, please vote to keep Parking Resolution 2005-1.

Happy Holidays
from the UMCA Board of Directors and Standing Committees