Women Sued by city for her car tires on her lawn

[GOPAPA]

A City in Florida has Charged This Woman More Than $100,000 for Parking on Her Own Property
Sandy Martinez says that fine, along with another $63,500 for driveway cracks and a downed fence, violates Florida's constitution.

[Ol Blue K20]

Sounds a bit extreme to me!

[Stocker]

With apologies to the late Paul Harvey -- here's the rest of the story. https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/...es/4721056001/

[Rickysnickers]

I'm not condoning what the City is doing. With that said, I would like to see a photo of the entire front of her house and what the surrounding neighborhood looks like, for comparison purposes.

[Gotenntitans]

Originally Posted by Rickysnickers

I'm not condoning what the City is doing. With that said, I would like to see a photo of the entire front of her house and what the surrounding neighborhood looks like, for comparison purposes.

Agreed. Sounds a bit petty to me and it would be hard to believe she's in a super Ritzy neighborhood letting her home just run down like that. I think they should be out looking for criminals instead of harassing this lady, but I don't live there so I probably shouldn't be forming an opinion anyway.

I park in the grass at my home and nobody ever says anything. I'm also in Arkansas too, where we're all out poaching deer and incesting anyway so.....

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by GOPAPA

A City in Florida has Charged This Woman More Than $100,000 for Parking on Her Own Property
Sandy Martinez says that fine, along with another $63,500 for driveway cracks and a downed fence, violates Florida's constitution.

I looked it up on another site and got this photo of her front yard and car parked on lawn

[Grumpy old man]

She ignored code enforcement

Martinez, Lohman said, is a "recidivist" who has been cited 31 times since 2007 for code violations. She fixed the related infractions 10 times, but remained non-compliant on the remaining 21 violations and repeatedly failed to attend hearings before a special magistrate, he said.

"She’s no stranger to code enforcement," Lohman said. "She’s well-versed in how the process works. The bottom line is she’s recalcitrant. She doesn’t want to comply with the town’s codes. She does what she wants to do."


HOA's and code enforcement are tough in FL .

[1976gmc20]

I guess she should quit her job and go on welfare. Maybe then she could move into a nice Section 8 condominium paid for by the taxpayers.

There's a reason I don't live in any sort of city or town anymore.

[old Rusty C10]

maybe its me but if youre paying taxes on a piece of land, as long as you arent doing something hazzardous to the neighborhood, and its contained to your property, the government needs to leave you the heck alone

[weq92f]

Originally Posted by old Rusty C10

maybe its me but if youre paying taxes on a piece of land, as long as you arent doing something hazzardous to the neighborhood, and its contained to your property, the government needs to leave you the heck alone

^^^^This^^^^

Private property is private. If this woman agreed in a contract ( HOA or other ) to abide by a set of bylaws, ordinances or codes that include her private property, she is in a world of hurt. It is apparent that daily fines do add up rather quickly.

-klb

[Dead Parrot]

OKC has a similar 'Can't park on the grass' ordinance. Every so often a city-resident conflict over parking makes the news. Don't think the city is very worried about driveway condition. An lot of OKC houses are older houses and the driveways were built when wagons or Model Ts ruled the road. I have seen some folks do a double row of paver bricks and that often is enough to keep the code enforcers happy.

Her driveway is in better condition then a lot of OKC neighborhood streets.

[Grumpy old man]

I lived in Fl for 30 years and stories like this are way to frequent , All it takes is one neighbor to anonymously report you to code enforcement over something they don't like about "your" property and they're on you . Try flying an American flag in a HOA community

[72c20customcamper]

The town where I rent out a home has codes on vehicles and other items . No parking on grass , no vehicles stored in driveway without plates after x amount of days reason being one car leads to another and before long it looks like a junk yard . Seen it happen all to often . I can park a trailer on the grass or cover an unregistered car and be compliant.

This woman just does it over and over. And the part that she has various leans on the property so she is unable to sell makes a huge statement .

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by 72c20customcamper

The town where I rent out a home has codes on vehicles and other items . No parking on grass , no vehicles stored in driveway without plates after x amount of days reason being one car leads to another and before long it looks like a junk yard . Seen it happen all to often . I can park a trailer on the grass or cover an unregistered car and be compliant.

This woman just does it over and over. And the part that she has various leans on the property so she is unable to sell makes a huge statement .

I am with you on this all the way .. I do not like some laws my self ,,but until they are changed ,I just abide by them or like what I did a few years ago ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I moved

[1976gmc20]

the part that she has various leans on the property so she is unable to sell makes a huge statement .

I think the liens are for the "fines" that have accumulated.

[72c20customcamper]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

I think the liens are for the "fines" that have accumulated.

Not clear but I’m thinking she has other legal issues too. Town would foreclose before putting liens which expire after 7 years if not renewed.

[special-K]

This is Florida. How can you define the grass from the driveway?? Are driveways required to be paved by the city's petty laws? And how does $100k fix the problem? Since I don't like the overregulation that comes with towns, cities, and housing developments I choose to not live in those places. The country way is "you do what you do and I'll do what I do". It works out well, even when you don't like what someone nearby does, because people aren't living on top of each other staring at each other's property

[1976gmc20]

I bet the city wouldn't like it any better if she could afford to have a concrete slab poured all over her lot

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by 72c20customcamper

The town where I rent out a home has codes on vehicles and other items . No parking on grass , no vehicles stored in driveway without plates after x amount of days reason being one car leads to another and before long it looks like a junk yard . Seen it happen all to often . I can park a trailer on the grass or cover an unregistered car and be compliant.

This woman just does it over and over. And the part that she has various leans on the property so she is unable to sell makes a huge statement .

Lol my wife would agree that one leads to another and soon it looks like a junkyard
I would never be able to live in an HOA. Its not even that my house looks trashy, it’s my damn land and I’ll do what I want with it.

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

Lol my wife would agree that one leads to another and soon it looks like a junkyard
I would never be able to live in an HOA. Its not even that my house looks trashy, it’s my damn land and I’ll do what I want with it.

X2!!! I pay for it. I'll enjoy it my way!....

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

Lol my wife would agree that one leads to another and soon it looks like a junkyard
I would never be able to live in an HOA. Its not even that my house looks trashy, it’s my damn land and I’ll do what I want with it.

Part of the reason we moved to Montana in 1997

Took about five years up here before I stopped looking over my shoulder

[special-K]

This woman proves the city wrong in their belief one leads to another. This has been going on for a long time, right? That's how the sum has mounted up to $100k, right? And all this time all she has been doing is parking one car next to the other IN THE DRIVEWAY. She just needs to widen here driveway. When I lived in FL my driveway was sea shells. You call that a driveway? I wonder if the problem is the city won't allow her to widen it. Too close to property line or some other bi-law the city conjured up.

The intent of the law is to prevent cars sitting elsewhere than the driveway, where "one can lead to another". They also have unregistered vehicle codes even for cars in the driveway. My county has that. We are allowed one, and that can be a larger part of a vehicle such as a cab or frame.

[Axle]

Originally Posted by GOPAPA

I looked it up on another site and got this photo of her front yard and car parked on lawn

Attachment 2104730

That looks like a gravel driveway with some errant grass growing through. Roundup that grass, presto, gravel driveway. =-)

[special-K]

Now that I looked at both pictures again I see she is parking three wide. And the one picture shows the apron is not that wide. She either can't get a permit, can't afford to widen it, or who knows. Maybe she parks four wide

[dmjlambert]

I used to live in Plano TX. They have enforcement of rules like that there. No parking on grass anywhere, period. No vehicles up on stands or blocks, and no expired or missing license plates or unregistered vehicles allowed anywhere except in a garage with the garage door closed. No pickup trucks with more than 6 lug wheels parked on residential streets in front of your house. (That means no 3/4 or 1 ton trucks.) I needed some extra parking area at my house for my truck, so I just bought a bunch of used brick-size pavers and put them on the lawn and made myself a really nice driveway. I was legal. You guys would have been miserable there, but I liked it just fine, I just followed the rules.

A friend of mine went to a crowded festival one time with some other friends, and there were no spots left except handicap. His friend parked in handicap, and he parked on grass. When the festival was winding down and they got back to their cars, they both had tickets. $250 for parking in handicap, and $450 for parking on grass.