The war between homeowners’ associations and Texas residents wages on. Now, folks are shaking their fists at these nitpicky rule makers for trying to nix work trucks from their neighborhood streets and playing with their pocketbooks.
There’s been a contentious relationship between commercial vehicles and city leaders in Texas for years. Recently, a former San Antonio City Council member successfully barred box trucks and big rigs from parking on several public streets, and these same trucks are now prohibited citywide from parking on residential roads.
However, there’s a more nuanced back-and-forth lurking in the neighborhoods of San Antonio: Can you park a work truck with your company logo on it outside your home when you have a persnickety HOA?
“My husband would work for a company, and it had logos – their logo on their truck,” a Creekside resident told MySA, a neighborhood on the Northwest Side of the city. “They wanted to [fine] us because his truck was in the driveway, so then he parked in the street. They were like, ‘No, he can’t park in the street.’ He can’t have the truck here, and I’m like, ‘How is he supposed to get to work?’”
As it turns out, HOAs can bar branded vehicles from parking in their neighborhoods. Cedar Management Group says these finicky organizations have considerable leeway when it comes to regulating “commercial vehicles.”
While many will outlaw vehicles based on signage, size, weight or the presence of commercial equipment –– such as ladders or racks –– broader bans can be included in the HOA’s covenants, conditions and restrictions. However, that can leave room for confusion if there’s no clear definition of a “commercial vehicle.”
Many folks expressed frustration with the limitations, often implemented to maintain aesthetics or parking space concerns, or were surprised to learn these trucks could be banned by an HOA at all. But there are people out there wishing someone would run these commercial vehicles out of their neighborhood, too.
“In Carmona Hills, they have work trucks in driveways and on the streets – no fines are given out here,” a local complained. “As a matter of fact, there are more work trucks and cars in driveways and parked on the streets that its hard to drive down them because of the car/work truck obstructions… Carolina Hills looks like a ‘Real Dump’… All HOAs should have the same rules.”