I think this is a wonderful story. Our subdivision covenants also do not allow boats (as well as trailers, RVs, Commercial Vehicles, etc…) to be visible and must be behind a fence…
I am going to show this story to my neighbor who has to “hide” his boat…
This neighbor is an electrician and that is his Van with advertisements on the side and he had to build this “hidey hole” to fool the “Nazi Lookie Loos” who patrol the neighborhood looking for violators…
I agree that he should have to keep it behind the fence. A commercial vehicle should not be parked night after night in a residential area.
I agree and this is how my neighbor handled it by extending his driveway back so the advertisments were obcured by the side fence and they are not visible from the street. I’m not sure ,but I seem to remembr his previous van had his phone number on the front and he had that painted over…
Thank goodness I don’t live in a neighborhood with an HOA. I am an HVAC technician, and I most certainly need my work truck–which is a marked commercial vehicle–to be able to run after-hours service calls.
It is preposterous for a neighborhood association to discriminate against plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, and other essential workers who need their work truck to be parked in front of their home in order to do their job. It is even more preposterous that it is unacceptable to park a marked commercial vehicle which says “XYZ Plumbing” or “XYZ Electrical Services” or “XYZ Heating and Air Conditioning” but somehow it is ok to park a vehicle which says “Police” or “Sheriff” on it.
There is much to be said about what you have written, but I when I lived in Tucson in the mid '90s, I was in a really strict HOA managed subdivision and we had a parking “Nazi” that marched around the subdivision with a plum bob on a string and the rules included you could not park your vehicles in such a way as to block the sidewalk.
If your bumper hung over the sidewalk, he would place the plum bob string again the offending bumper and lower the plum bob and if it landed on the sidewalk, you got a $25 fine for the second and ever time after for "blocking the sidewalk.
Now, to continue on the thought of a commercial vehicle, one of my neighbors was a commercial trucker with a big, really big, sleeper cab Kenworth Truck, to hide the door registrations and company information, etc… he had magnetic “signs” with no lettering in matching paint color to cover all the letters and members… And to the untrained eye, it looked just like a biggo family truck.
Like me, he had a three-car garage and he parked his truck across the three parking spaces in front of his garage.
He claimed it was his personal vehicle… After that, the HOA rules were rewritten to specify a 10,000 pound limit on personal vehicles… and the HOA tried to force him to stop and took him to court, but the court said although the rule could stand, but since it was specifically written to prevent him from doing what was permitted to do when he moved in, he as exempt for as long as he owned that truck.
Luckily, he did not live close, as he sometimes left that truck running, and the noise and smell often got the police visiting him for being a nuisance…
Yeah I saw that article a while back. We don’t have an hoa but there are covenants covering signs and such and home businesses. I don’t mind. They are pretty tame. Since we were the first property owners we could make changes if we wanted. We did change the pool rule. Only cost $100 for the lawyer. We do have an ordinance for trailers to be parked on a hard surface, so I poured a slab.
It’s rude & inconsiderate parking behavior to block a public sidewalk imo. Children, blind folks, the elderly, all need a clear sidewalk to go about their day safely. A $25 fine for sidewalk blocking is ok by me. These sorts of things can be taken too far of course.
I so hope that Karma gets people like that in a bad way… 
Had a truck on a sidewalk nearby, sometimes block the sidewalk, other times trailer hitch overhanging the sidewalk. Called the police one day, after x amount of hours gave them a ticket. I met the policeman there and he said yeah, I can see it. Neighbor snitched on me and as I was walking up to go to walgreens they met me on the sidewalk with the do you know who I am? I said the ordinance is 2 foot clearance from the sidewalk, don’t like it call your alderman. They say you better make sure everything at your house is in order because we are going to be calling inn any violation on you, and more nastiness. Funny thing a couple years later lady wondering who was calling in dog complaints on (not her) dog supposedly. I said I do not know. She asked are you the one that got us the sidewalk ticket. I said yes, she apologized gave some lame excuses, bright side one less enemy in the world!
This type of ■■■■isn’t just in CA. In fact, it’s probably more prevalent here in New England. We have a lot of HOAs and then we also have historic districts which are real strict standards. Something as simple as a fence will have to be approved by the historic society which in many areas only meet once or twice a year. And if fence isn’t approved you start process all over. It can be a nightmare. I REFUSE to move in places like that. But if you do then you should obey the bylaws.
Columbia, MD is an extreme example. Exterior colors, like doors, shingles, and roofs, must be approved by the Columbia Association.
Some friends live in a town near Ft Lauderdale, can’t part a truck on the street that has a business name on it, he barely got by with an unmarked truck owned by a business. In my girlfriend’s location, no street parking midnight to 6 AM.
Ok, now I get it. Just a little tired. The HOAs around here are mainly for townhouses that would make some sense. We just have deed covenants that ran for about 15 years and determined by the owners. Since we were the first and only owner, we were able to change one of the covenants. Cost $100 for the lawyer. One of the rules is/was yard signs. City ordinance restricts street parking. They wanted to restrict it all winter but I objected and I assume a few others and they dropped the idea. It’s monkey see monkey do.
That’s common here. And I understand why. I’ve driven through some very nice neighborhoods (homes starting at $1.5 million) and right in the middle is this 4 acre property with construction equipment all over. The guy owns a construction company and it’s run out of his house. I vastly devalues other properties of his neighbors.
+1
There’s a construction contractor in the neighborhood across the highway from our neighborhood. My wife’s cousin used to live next door. When this guy moved in and started storing his heavy equipment there, our cousin moved quickly before the house was devalued. Since then, the contractor put up a 12-foot privacy fence to obscure his equipment.
They can’t get away with that on our side of the highway. My next door neighbor had a new asphalt driveway poured two weeks ago and it took two days. The contractor removed all of his equipment overnight, including a dump truck, trailer, asphalt laying machine, and a steamroller.
That’s all well and good if that is a priority for folks in the area. Seems a bit excessive to me given the limited time the work was expected to take. Comes at a cost. If contractors have to pack up and move heavy equipment every night, someone is paying for that. Most of the time, a huge chunk of the cost is just getting heavy equipment to the site…
One of my neighbors is an executive by profession but likes to play in his man sized sandbox sometimes. He has lots of big equipment for personal use and amusement- dump truck, excavator, bobcats, man lift etc. He’s got 8 acres and messes around out back. Nobody cares and he’s willing to help if you need one of his “toys” for a project. Most of the homes in the neighborhood are $2M+
The trailer is about 30 feet long and was parked in front of my house, blocking the mail box. I asked one of the workers at the end of the day to move the trailer forward so that I could get mail delivered the next day and they told me they were moving it overnight. I like my neighbor and was willing to accept no street parking overnight. I was happy to know that the equipment would be moved. As for the added expense, the neighbor pays for it, not me. If I have my driveway replaced, then it will be my turn.