Residents in Houston’s Tanglewilde neighborhood are officially banned from parking on unpaved parts of their lawns. The neighborhood’s civic club calls lawn parking a growing problem that has hurt the community.
Some community members like James Schafer oppose the new ordinance. He parks this trailer on his lawn. It holds tools for a live medieval-themed production he puts on.
“We use it for LARP, which is live-action role-playing, so that’s where our equipment is. It is painted to look like a castle,” Schafer said.
Now, he can no longer park it there after a city ordinance was passed banning people from parking on unpaved parts of their lawns in Tanglewilde.
“Now, I’m paying 4 thousand dollars to pour concrete there, so in the end, it’s going to park on the exact same spot, just with concrete,” Schafer said.
While Schafer uses the trailer for entertainment, the neighborhood’s civic club says others parking on lawns are causing problems for the area.
“People really do think parking looks bad on the yards. It kills the grass. It makes everything look bad. They want to preserve the charm of the neighborhood. Some are more pragmatic, ‘Hey, that hurts our property value,'” Kevin Whited said.