Non-Commercial Pick-Up Trucks in Coral Gables after dark?
The City of Coral Gables City Commission held a pick-up truck ordinance workshop on September 13, 2011. The Mayor and Commissioners are not allowed, by law, to discuss public matters in private so they invited the public to come and listen to their concerns and ideas. Commissioner Ralph Cabrera was absent from the workshop. I was very impressed at the amount of research and concern the legislators showed.
Commissioner Maria Anderson, who has been pushing for a review of the ordinance, said she wants some “thoughtful and reasonable” modifications to the law. She still supports a parking ban on monster trucks and commercial vehicles as do all of the supporters who want the ordinances modified.
The mayor enumerated several ways that Coral Gables could regulate pick-up trucks, based on examples from other cities.
These include: requiring pick-up trucks to use form-fitting tarps; allow certain trucks based on their dimensions; limiting the number of trucks allowed in the city; limiting the places where pick-up truck owners can park their vehicles; and defining when the trucks can park.
“It’s strange that we have said you can’t park them [trucks] at night when you can’t see them,” Cason said.
Slesnick was to busy to attend the meeting Tuesday. but he wrote in an e-mail Monday: “Those citizens who have invested substantial sums of money in their homes and are rightfully concerned about real estate values and want their neighborhoods to be as pristine as possible and distinguishable from the east, west and north of our city limits that have a proliferation of such vehicles.” Ex-Mayor Slesnick has yet to provide any current scientific studies that show "how" non-commercial pick-up trucks lower property values, but, nonetheless, he still stands by his "fear" that one day swamp buggies will be parked in front of every home.
You can help the effort by writing City officials and participating. The Coral Gables City Commission voted 4-0 to send the ban on overnight parking of pick-up trucks to the city’s Planning and Zoning Board for review.
The board is supposed to hold public hearings about the law, which has been in place since the 1960s, and recommend whether or not to make changes to it. If the board suggests modifications, it must specify what those would be.
City to Start Enforcing Ordinances Against Trucks August 8, 2011 (Miami Herald)
Watch Coral Gables Zoning Office Clute's Deposition - Rational?
In order for the zoning ordinances to be held constitutional, they need to be rational and promote a legitimate government purpose. The City argued the ordinances help preserve the aesthetics of Coral Gables and therefore, keep property prices higher. However, if you watch the deposition of Officer Clute, a City Zoning Employee for more than fifteen years, you will see that the ordinances are not rationally related to the City's "purpose" of aesthetics and therefore, the laws are unconstitutional.
Is There Really A Difference?
I took this picture recently (December 2010) of a couple of cars outside a house in Coral Gables. If you cannot tell, there are two cars parked out in front which look very similar. However, because of the Coral Gables ordinances, which are to protect the aesthetics of the "City Beautiful" (only at night), one is allowed to park in the City at night, and the other is not. Based only on what the vehicles look like, can you really say there is a difference and one will lower property values simply because of the way it looks? Click on the picture for a larger photo.
We Are Looking For Our Next Case Against The City
I am looking for a specific set of facts that I believe will help us to have this archaic law finally held to be unconstitutional.
If you have a family member who visits you frequently in the City at night, and they receive a citation for parking their non-commercial, personal use pick-up truck, in violation of the City zoning code, I would like to speak with you and with your family member. I can be contacted at work at 305.358.6800.
City of Coral Gables Ban On Parking Personal Use Pickup Trucks Is Absurd
Coral Gables' ban on parking personal use pickup trucks outside in the city at night is absurd. City Commissioners as well as Mayor Don Slesnick refuse to rewrite the City's parking ordinances because they feel that pickup trucks are not esthetically pleasing and will have a negative effect on property values. However, there is currently no law or ordinance that would prohibit or ban cars such as this one from parking in the City at anytime of the day. As a matter of fact, I took the picture of this car, which was located at the threshold of the city on Granada and Bird Road, around noon time. The only thing missing was a "Welcome to Coral Gables" sign on the side.
In both cases, Kuvin and Kearns, Spencer Kuvin has asked that the City rewrite the truck parking ordinances to reflect the current trend of citizens in using their trucks as personal, everyday modes of transportation. However, the City and its attorneys have stonewalled all efforts to settle the issues. The effect of the City's litigious mind set has cost the taxpayers of Coral Gables well over $200,000 in legal expenses over the last five years.