County says I have too many cars. HELP!, What can I do to get around this? Options

[bondo]

I got a letter saying that I have too many cars visible from the street. not parked on the street, just VISIBLE. In my own fricken DRIVEWAY! They say the limit is 2 per residence.. that's right, TWO. This is a three bedroom house, with enough driveway space to park 7 cars. It's an unincorporated part of the San Luis Obispo County called Los Osos. It's somewhat rural with no sidewalks and not even all the streets are paved. Somehow having cars in my driveway is a blight to the neighborhood? Come on. My first instinct is to build a giant sign that says "The county says I can only have two vehicles visible from the street, so I built this sign to hide them" and then put the cars behind it. Then when they complain about the sign I can claim freedom of speech. My dad owns the house (we pay rent), so there's no chance of getting evicted. Any suggestions how I can fight this? (the letter was actually sent to my dad) I moved here specifically to avoid this sort of ordinance that cities typically have.. who knew the county would come after me?

I'm pissed! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

--Royce
(6 cars and a 914)
(two are temporary)

[Caveman]

One of the magazines I get is Classic Trucks magazine (I have a 54 Chevy Panel Van) and I remember when they were talking about this law a few years ago. Unfortunately it was brought up for peole that really deserved it, you know seven broke down clunkers in the front yard. But what everyone says is right: if your neighbors suck, you're going to suffer.

Each county can do their own thing in this case, but there's a couple of things you should do: write your congressman, cc the county agency that wrote you the letter, explaining your situation. Like I said, the law wasn't brought about for hobbyists, it was brought around for people that have crappy cars that break down, and don't have money to fix or move them, etc.

If they wanted to sieze your cars, they would have to have a written consent from you (fat chance) or a writ of entry (takes a good while) because its on private property. If they take anything without that, you can sue there pants off.

Go down to our county recorder's office and see if somebody filed a lien against you. It could be one of your neighbors or even the county. I'm guessing you don't belong to the home-owners association (man I hate those guys, usually only for condos).

So show us a pic of your driveway so we can see just how badly you're lowering the prop value in your neighborhood (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Seriously, the law is pretty iffy about this kind of thing, but if somebody actually tows your cars, its not going to be easy or cheap t get them back.