Aggie football weekends are a busy and exciting time in our community, especially around Kyle Field, but thousands of football fans also need to park and make it to the game in time to enjoy the festivities. To help you avoid parking problems and better enjoy your experience, here are some things you should know.
Yard parking can be costly
It’s illegal to operate a business in a residential neighborhood in College Station, and selling parking spaces in your yard is considered a business. Most people know that parking on the grass is not allowed, yet some still try to sell game day parking spaces in their yards.
Visitors who pay to park in these areas are usually not aware of the restrictions and unwittingly break the law. That’s bad enough, but property owners who engage in this practice can also receive fines of up to $2,000 per offense.
Why does it matter?
Here are a few reasons why property owners aren’t allowed to engage in this type of commerce:
- Vehicles parked in the grass can impede fire personnel responding to a fire.
- Parking in the grass can present an extreme fire hazard, especially in times of little rain. A spark can ignite a grass fire which can then easily spread to other vehicles and surrounding structures.
- Oil and other chemicals leaking from parked cars can seep into our underground water supply and cause environmental damage.
Safety concerns have also led the city to prohibit parking on one side of narrow streets, especially those in older neighborhoods. If cars park on both sides of these streets, fire trucks and ambulances would have difficulty responding to emergencies.
Our most common violations
To help you make informed decisions, here are the 10 most frequent parking transgressions we see throughout the year, the first five of which are mandated by state law:
- Parking within 30 feet of a traffic control device such as a stop sign, yield sign or flashing light. STATE LAW
- Parking facing traffic — your car must always be parked in the direction of traffic flow. STATE LAW
- Parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant. STATE LAW
- Parking within 20 feet of a marked or unmarked crosswalk. STATE LAW
- Parking in a handicap space without a handicap placard (this one will cost you $325!). STATE LAW
- Parking on a yard. LOCAL ORDINANCE
- Parking at expired meters. LOCAL ORDINANCE
- Overstaying allotted time periods in time-limited parking. LOCAL ORDINANCE
- Parking in loading zones. LOCAL ORDINANCE
- Blocking driveways so residents can’t get in or out. LOCAL ORDINANCE
We hope this information helps you fully enjoy the experience of watching the Aggies win at Kyle Field. Thanks, and Gig ‘em!
Living just blocks from Kyle Field, our neighborhood becomes a parking lot and we see so many parking violations. Thanks so much for sharing this information.
This prohibition against a homeowner charging people to park in their driveway is a classic case of stupid government bureaucracy. The reasons they give are ludicrous and just plainly stupid. It was already prohibited to park cars on grass. I want to park cars on my driveway. This is an instance where consenting adults want to enter into a mutually beneficial contract that harms no one, and yet small minds in city government want to terminate our ability to use and profit from our property.