The Gainesville City Commission has already started planning for the 2014 football season by passing stricter rules pertaining to residents selling parking in their yards on gameday.
Effective 2014, parking on residential lots will be allowed from 8 a.m. to midnight or three hours after the game has ended — whichever occurs later. Vehicles that remain parked in a residential area after that window of time must be left overnight and cannot be accessed until the next morning.
The regulations also regulate portable toilets on private property.
A 4-3 vote at a Thursday meeting approved the new measures. Mayor Ed Braddy, City Commissioner Yvonne Hinson-Rawls and City Commissioner Todd Chase cast the dissenting votes.
According to the ordinance, violating these terms could bring a $250 code enforcement fine, and multiple violations will put a property’s gameday parking permit at risk.
Residents will still be required to buy permits — which cost about $50 each — to sell parking for the football season.
So far, many residents who sell parking are displeased with the new regulations.
Brianne Bradley, a 20-year-old UF advertising and marketing junior, said she was shocked that the new rules got passed.
“I think it’s ridiculous because you’re not responsible for people if they want to give you money to park there,” she said. “Especially if you have a permit that allows people to pay to keep their cars there.”
Bradley said she doubts the law will be enforced properly.
“They’d make an example out of one person and try to deter people from doing it with that,” she said.
Ashley Lindenberg, a 22-year-old UF accounting graduate student who began selling parking at her house this year, said it could make gameday parking more difficult.
“It’s not realistic to expect students to be able to enforce that law,” she said. “Personal property shouldn’t be subject to that kind of regulation. It could complicate gameday parking and hurt students looking to earn money in a way that only benefits the community.”
While some residents don’t think the rules can benefit them, Commissioner Thomas Hawkins said there are a couple of advantages to the new regulations and gameday activities should not be affected by the new rules.
“With the new regulations, we matched the permit cycle to football season, and that will save folks a lot of money,” he said. “I love gameday Saturdays, and this is no attempt to stop tailgating. But it does make the neighborhoods safer and better for folks.”
Hawkins said that the rules are meant to regulate over-the-top gameday behavior, such as public urination, late-night partying that disturbs neighbors and portable toilets that sit in yards for the entire football season.
“There’s a couple examples of really egregious behavior,” he said. “We identified those as extreme behavior and tried to write rules that wouldn’t affect the vast majority of folks.”
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 9/9/2013 under the headline "Parking rules stricter for 2014"
