QUESTION: The language in my CC&Rs states that "there will be no RV parking on the public street within the development." Can the HOA control public street parking?

ANSWER: Yes. Even though local ordinances may allow RV parking on public streets, such ordinances do not invalidate private restrictions unless the ordinance specifically provides otherwise. Your CC&Rs are recorded covenants (promises) made by each owner to other owners and to the association. If owners covenant not to park their RVs on streets within the community or adjacent to it, the promise can be enforced by other owners or the association or both.

Restrictions. Associations cannot restrict the general public but it can restrict the actions of its members, and members' family, guest, and invitees. That is the nature of living in a common interest development. If the CC&Rs restrict parking and someone buys into the development, the buyer automatically becomes a member of the association and is bound by the association's restrictions.

Reasonableness. By statute, restrictions are fully enforceable if they are reasonable. Civil Code §1354(a). The reasoning behind parking restrictions is to preserve property values by regulating aesthetics. A number of cases have recognized the authority of governmental entities to control "visual blight." The cases specifically dealt with the right to restrict the parking of recreational vehicles, motor homes, trailers, boats, commercial vehicles, inoperable vehicles, and the like. Such reasoning extends to community associations. An association's right to enforce member parking on public streets has been upheld in at least three other states. Verna v. The Links at Valleybrook Neighborhood Assn, 371 N.J. Super. 77, 852 A.2d 202 (App. 2004); Gillman v. Pebble Cove Home Owners Assn., 546 N.Y.S.2d 134; and Maryland Estates Homeowners' Ass'n. v. Puckett, 936 S.W.2d 218 (Mo. App. 1996).