Couple gets $1.5K fine for parking in their driveway despite doing so for nearly 40 years

SAN FRANCISCO — It appeared so unfair. They’d been utilizing their carpad for many years – when all of a sudden the northern California metropolis mentioned it is unlawful. Not solely that, they have been threatened with a $1,500 high quality – an enormous penalty even for San Francisco. The one approach out? Return into San Francisco historical past.

Parking in San Francisco is a troublesome a part of life right here. You discover a spot… however get a ticket anyway.

For Judy and Ed Craine it appears particularly unfair.

“We at all times use the carport,” mentioned Judy.

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“Parked in that driveway day-after-day and each night time,” confirmed Ed.

They reside on a steep hill the place parking could be a gravity-defying problem.

However they may slip into their driveway and park on their carpad, which they’d been doing day-after-day for the previous 36 years.

However not anymore.

“We obtained this e-mail saying we will not park within the pad anymore. I mentioned what, that is loopy,” recounted Ed.

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Out of the blue, the couple obtained a ticket for parking in their very own driveway.

“It was very stunning, to say the least,” mentioned Judy.

And worse? It got here with an infinite high quality: $1,542 {dollars}, plus one other $250 per day in the event that they did not get the automobile off their carpad.

“I wrote them again saying I assumed this was a mistake,” Judy mentioned.

However it was no mistake. And no atypical parking ticket. It got here from the town Planning Division, telling them it is unlawful to park within the entrance of a home.

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“And if we have been discovered parking there once more, it will be a $1,500 high quality,” Judy mentioned.

And they also shortly pulled the automobile out — however none of it made sense.

“Why are you taking away one thing that has nice utility?” requested Ed.

Ed and Judy had been parking there for practically 4 a long time. And so far as they may inform, the house was used for parking because the home was constructed again in 1910 – one of many first of their Noe Valley neighborhood.

“To abruptly to be advised you possibly can’t use one thing that we might use for years. It is, it is startling. Inexplicable,” Ed mentioned.

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And so the Planning Division gave them a problem: show that parking was a historic use on the lot, they usually would possibly get a waiver.

“We might be grandfathered in. If we present them a historic photograph that confirmed a automobile… or a horse-drawn buggy within the carport,” mentioned Judy.

Straight away they dug up a photograph of their daughter 34 years in the past – part of the automobile barely seen.

However officers mentioned: not sufficiently old.

“I did various on-line searches,” mentioned Ed.

And they also combed via tons of of historic photographs.

A lot confirmed the early days, when there have been few streets or houses.

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“Our home and our neighbor’s home had empty fields throughout,” Ed mentioned.

However to discover a photograph of a automobile or horse of their explicit driveway, again earlier than the times of iPhone cameras?

Practically not possible.

After which, bingo.

“To me, it is fairly compelling that was a automobile,” Ed mentioned.

An aerial photograph from 1938 exhibits their precise residence – and Ed is bound he can see a automobile – or horse-and-buggy — pulling into his driveway!

“So this little black blob appears to be like prefer it’s pulling into our home,” Ed mentioned.

It appears to be like like only a blob from above. However Ed says it have to be a automobile — like all the opposite blobs you possibly can see alongside the street.

“I do not know what else they might be,” he mentioned. “To me, it is fairly compelling that that was a automobile pulling in or out of the parking pad.”

They rushed the photograph to the Planning Division – the proof they want!

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Proper?

Flawed.

“They mentioned that they have been too fuzzy,” Judy mentioned.

The Planning Division mentioned this was not clear proof.

Officers inform 7 On Your Facet the couple was violating a code part banning automobiles in a setback in entrance of a home, even when it is not blocking a sidewalk.

Although it is OK to park in entrance of a storage, like lots of their neighbors.

Planning Chief Dan Sider mentioned it was enacted a long time in the past for aesthetic causes, to “Be sure that entrance yards do not flip into parking heaps.”

But, it is OK to park in entrance of a storage, like their neighbors,

“I do not assume our automobile appears to be like any worse than all of the vehicles stacked in entrance of garages,” Ed Craine mentioned.

And why implement the rule in any case these a long time?

Sider mentioned somebody made an nameless criticism to the town. Two neighbors additionally obtained tagged for a similar violation, parking in a entrance driveway.

In an e-mail, Sider wrote:

“I acknowledge that the property proprietor is annoyed. I feel I might really feel the identical approach of their state of affairs. However the Planning Code would not permit for the Metropolis to grandfather unlawful makes use of on account of their having flown under the radar for a size of time.”

And so their carport sits empty — the oil stain a testomony to simpler days — as they battle to park on the hill.

“I had to make use of my head to maintain the trunk open whereas getting out groceries,” Judy mentioned.

“The onus is on us to show we’re harmless… although I do not really feel responsible,” Judy mentioned.

Town did shut the case with out charging any penalties after the couple obtained the automobile off the carpad and saved it off. And the town says they may construct a lined carport or storage to park there – or possibly discover that previous photograph.

Check out extra tales and movies by Michael Finney and seven On Your Facet.

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