The Threatening, Negative, Ineffective (and ILLEGAL) Visitor Parking Signs Are Being Replaced By Encouraging, Positive, Effective and Perfectly Legal Temporary Parking Signs

A few years ago, the Old HOA Board decided, in their typical heavy-handed fashion, to use our money to place at each of our auxiliary parking areas, signs that threatened anyone who was deemed "not a visitor" that their vehicle would be towed away! Of course, they didn't ask us about this, but just did it all on their own, and never stopped to think how, instead of preventing people from leaving their cars on these auxiliary parking spaces for way longer than they needed to, it merely added to our already pressing problem--not having enough parking!

For one thing, by saying these spaces were ONLY for "visitors," it implied no one of us who actually lives here could ever use them! Some of our residents, especially those who have been, unjustly, targeted for any number of the 1000s of outdated rules the Old HOA Board used, discriminately, to go after the people they deemed "undesirable," have been loathe to use these parking spaces, even for short, reasonable periods of time and, consequently, have had to, on occasion, park more vehicles on their limited, small driveways, sometimes having to resort to parking a few or more inches on their also very limited front yards!

For another thing--IT IS ILLEGAL TO MAKE AND POST A SIGN THAT RESEMBLES A GOVERNMENT SIGN! Section 393.005 of the Texas Transportation Code addresses the placement of unauthorized signs on public rights-of-way, stating that placing a sign in violation of this chapter is an offense, punishable as a Class C misdemeanor (Fines up to $500!). Only an official government entity (City, County, State or Federal) may post a sign that makes any sort of threat of punishment. Replacing the wording on these parking signs was not only a way of encouraging much more cooperation and consideration, it was also necessary to avoid running afoul of Texas State Law! For people who love to go on and on and on about "following the rules," whenever it seemed to them a good idea to PRETEND they had the same authority as a real government agency, they threw the real Law to the winds!

Fortunately, our new Interim HOA Board has already communicated with the City of Plano with a petition (# 16717697) to allow sufficient time to replace the illegal signs with legal ones (signs that are clearly, private ones) that will, in a polite manner, encourage our visitors and residents to make good use of our auxiliary parking spaces while being mindful they are for temporary, shared usage.

Of course, the great irony here is how members of the Old HOA Board, and their handful of acolytes have complained so long and so loud about their neighbors "parking too many cars on their driveways and even on the grass!" In other words, instead of encouraging our neighbors to make good use of our temporary auxiliary parking, maybe when they have family over, or kids back from college or an extra work vehicle, they've used FEAR and INTIMIDATION to render our auxiliary parking way underused and, as a direct result, aggravated our lack of adequate parking!

Naturally, we do need to find a long-term solution for our lack of adequate parking which is one of the many real problems our community has been facing for many years, if not decades, but the last HOA Board and previous Boards failed to even deal with...except to use problems like this one as an excuse to make all the rest of us feel like we can't even walk outside the doors of our homes without being confronted by one more THREAT! [Note: With all the threats we all face every time we go out into the world, "HOME" should be the ONE PLACE where you can FEEL SAFE, and NOT THREATENED!]

For this reason, your new Interim HOA Board is embarking on a whole new, positive approach--Encouraging our neighbors to make good use of the auxiliary parking, with consideration of others! The new signs are going to read, "Temporary Parking, Please Share, Thank you!" [It's amazing what the power of "Please" and "Thank you" can do!] We'll begin with sign changes that won't cost any more than a little paint and stencils, but as soon as funds are available, we, as a community can agree to spend some more money for signs that will look as nice as the message on them.

No more threatening negativity ----->>> but positive encouragement instead ------->>>

After scrounging up enough for one nice, new sign, just look at the huge difference in the attitude conveyed between the Old HOA Board sign on the left and the new one on the right! Then, ask yourself, which one makes you feel like YOU are being respected and welcomed to share our community's limited resources, and which one makes you feel like you don't even belong here!