The following notice was posted to the Tega Cay City Website and sent out to email subscribers in regards to Tega Cay’s ordinance about parking on sidewalks.
Dear Residents,
We have received several questions regarding the appropriate interpretation of obstructing a public sidewalk when it crosses a private driveway. The following is to inform you of what the regulation says and that it will be enforced by our patrol and code enforcement officers accordingly. We are sending this memo out in an effort to help better educate the public and to hopefully avoid any potential violations of this regulation in the future.
Ordinance 70 (Uniform Law Enforcement), specifies in Section 70.34(1) that parking on sidewalks is unlawful. A sidewalk is defined as a paved area for pedestrian use, usually beside a roadway and located in the right-of-way easement. There are some neighborhoods in which the sidewalk extends across and through a private driveway, causing confusion as to whether it is actually a pedestrian easement. The public sidewalk runs through the private driveway and, as such, parking a vehicle in such a manner that obstructs this pedestrian easement is a violation of Ord. 70, Section 70.43(1).
It is the intent of the Tega Cay Police Department and City Code Enforcement Officers to respond to complaints regarding parking on sidewalks by first informing the offender of the violation and requesting compliance with City Ordinances. Should the offender not comply with this direction, the officer may issue a parking ticket, or a summary notice.
If you should have any questions regarding this, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our Police Department Staff. My staff and I welcome the opportunity assist you in any way.
Sincerely, Rick Evelsizer Chief of Police
Fantastic! Now, if you can pass an ordinance that would prevent people from parking in the street in the wrong direction, that’d be great.
How about we worry about dangerous offenders instead of something like this. Example: People driving through the Crosswalks when people are in the middle of them.
Or Golf Cart drivers who pull out into traffic without looking first…
I’ve seen no evidence of this ordinance ever being enforced. I have neighbors who habitually park their vehicles in ways that block the sidewalks crossing their driveways. C’mon man!!